


Love Seitan

by Chelidona (Hobbity)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And some Bagginshield, Because I wanted to have a fic where I can drool over the food too, I'm serious Fíli and Kíli are vegans here, Lots of vegan food, M/M, Vegan AU, and adorable dorks in love, at all, fili and kili are not related, there's also fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-05-23 08:51:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6111376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbity/pseuds/Chelidona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fíli encounters the most handsome man ever in a vegan shop. Luckily, we meet everybody twice in life and Fíli gets his chance to see him again. But things don't go as smoothly as he had hoped.<br/>(Also, please read the tags. They're vegan without any explanations here. The focus is the love story, I just wanted a story where I could relate to the food choices of my favourites. Apart from what they they eat, drink, and wear they're just our normal beloved dorks in love.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Encounters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straycrab](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straycrab/gifts).



> Okay, so this sort of takes place in a version of Middle Earth? Because I like Irish accents, for example, the people of Rohan speak with an Irish accent here (Eomer and Eowyn, I love you, please forgive me). So Fíli is from Arnor, Kíli is from Rohan, Thorin is from Rhovanion. All separate countries, but no orcs and trolls and certainly no dragons. It's a modern world.
> 
> Update: This has now been betaed by Khafushun! Thank you so much! His corrections make the writing flow so much better! (And get rid of all those embarrassing grammar mistakes ...)

Erebor was a large, rambling town at the foot of the Lonely Mountain. Once, it had been a city of miners, and the city's residents were still proud of their heritage. The collapse of the mining industry in Rhovanion had hit the city hard, however. The Durins, who had owned most of the mines, had nearly been ruined. But the city had managed to reinvent itself, and Durin Inc. had been at the forefront of Erebor's transformation from mining town to IT capital of Middle Earth.

Now, people from as far away as Haradwaith were coming to Erebor, attracted by the opportunities to become part of the vanguard of the digital era, creating a new tomorrow. Or at least, that’s how Thorin Durin, CEO of Durin Inc., liked to advertise Erebor. He also liked to add in interviews that Durin Inc. stood for a combination of the traditional and the modern; as a young company in the IT sector, they could give opportunities to young talent, while retaining their essential values as a family business. He treated his young programmers and designers like family members, and he was training his young nephew, Philip Prince, a “skilled developer”, as his successor.

Said Philip Prince hated his name with a passion and insisted on being called Fíli. It often took some time for newcomers in his office building to realize that the handsome young man who introduced himself as “Fíli” was, in fact, the heir to the company. He liked it that way. He had only come to live in Erebor recently; he had been employed in the Arnor branch of Durin Inc since he had graduated from university. That had been located in Ered Luin, his home. Needless to say, he had been less than pleased to have been ordered to Erebor six month previously. It was one reason why he wasn’t on speaking terms with his uncle at the moment. They emailed each other for work-related matters, but apart from that, Fíli chose to ignore that he had any relatives in Erebor.

There was one thing, however, that he loved about Erebor: a vegan shop had opened up shortly after Fíli had moved there. He had only recently become a vegan, and consequently, he had no idea where to shop. Considering that he had also never learnt how to cook, he was at a complete loss. His local shop carried some vegan items, but he wasn’t used to reading labels and ingredient lists all the time. He was used to either relying on his mother (who wasn’t a vegan, but was willing to try something new for her boy) or just going to the supermarket, grabbing something ready-made that looked okay, pay for it, go home, and eat it. Life couldn't be that straight forward as a vegan, though, apparently.

Needless to say, when he discovered “Love Seitan”, he was excited. Finally, a place where he could shop. “Love Seitan” was not too far from Fíli’s office, which meant that he often spent way too much money there. They had a decent selection of frozen vegan pizza and other frozen meals.

***

One drizzly spring day, he had selected a couple of pizzas, hoping they would brighten the grey days. Then the doorbell chimed, and Fíli automatically looked towards the door. A man had just entered the shop, smiling broadly as he put his phone in his pocket. Fíli’s throat dried as he took in those ruffled brown curls, chocolaty eyes, and that luscious lower lip as it curved into a smile … not to mention the man's body. The poor bloke was having difficulties shoving his phone into his pocket, and all the fiddling and pushing had directed Fíli’s gaze to his midsection. Once Fíli realised he was staring, he quickly turned around to face the shelf behind him. Spices. He never used spices; he didn’t cook. But to avoid that distracting man, he pretended to contemplate a spice mixture for salads. 

“Em, excuse me.” The lilting voice startled him. He turned around and nearly gasped. There was no way that such an alluring voice could belong to that gorgeous man. It just wasn’t fair. He had always had a weakness for the Rohan accent. He shuffled aside after an embarrassingly long moment.

“Cheers, mate.” The other one smiled at him. “Sorry to bother you.”

“No worries.”

And that was it. That was their whole interaction. But Fíli’s dreams were now haunted by those eyes and that mess of hair. And that voice. And the sheer joy in that smile. And he might be a vegan too! His flaws, Fili mused, would have to be absolutely horrible in order to balance out such perfection.

***

Unfortunately, Fili's life was not always filled with chance encounters with gorgeous potential vegans. A few days after his trip to “Love Seitan”, Fíli got a call just as he was entering his flat. He frowned when he saw the caller ID. Thorin. He had already put his phone down on the couch table when he changed his mind and picked up after all.

“Hello?”

“Fíli.” Thorin’s voice was always so deep and serious, and Fíli couldn't help but feel his uncle was disappointed in him, just from the way he always said his name.

“Thorin. How are you?”

There was a pause, as if the polite question had thrown the other man off. “Fine,” came the gruff answer. “Look, you’re a vegan now, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Fíli prayed that Thorin hadn’t called to lecture him on yet another one of his life’s choices.

“The Mill has some vegan dishes listed on the menu.”

Fíli nearly dropped his phone.

“Um… yes, I know.”

“Have you been there?”

“No… I just read about it the other day on Facebook.” Fíli opened his fridge to get some beer. He needed something to get him through this. And then he actually dropped the bottle on the floor when Thorin spoke again.

“Do you have time this week to have dinner with me there?”

Luckily, the bottle wasn’t broken. Fíli crouched down to pick it up before he answered.

“Sure… I’m free this week.”

“Good. I’ll book a table for seven o’clock on Friday then.”

When the call ended, Fíli looked at his phone in confusion. That had been odd. If Thorin hadn’t acted so “thorinesque” at the end, practically ordering Fíli to come to the restaurant, he would have thought his uncle was grievously ill. He opened the beer and took a swig. Dinner with his uncle. Should be a good idea, considering everything.

***

The Mill was a little traditional restaurant in the posh area where Thorin resided. Thorin was already seated at a table near the entrance when Fíli arrived. And, of course, he complained that Fíli was all of five minutes late. But as soon as Fíli was seated, a waiter materialised and handed them their menus. There were actually three vegan dishes to choose from. The person who posted the information on the local Facebook group had recommended the vegetable curry. The spirelli with homemade walnut-dried tomato pesto sounded good too, though. 

To Fíli’s surprise, Thorin ordered the vegan curry. He couldn’t remember his uncle being so adventurous when it came to food. Fíli had the pasta. Their conversation was a bit awkward while they waited for their food to arrive. Contrary to other restaurants, The Mill had gone the extra step to clearly label their home-brewed beers as vegan, and they also had a number of wines that were listed as vegan, too. Fíli really fancied a beer, but he went along with Thorin, who ordered a bottle of white wine. Their conversation flowed easier with the help of the food and wine. 

Thorin mainly seemed interested in Fíli’s opinion of the food. Luckily, it was delicious, and that brightened the mood. They talked a little bit about Dis and her latest adventures. It only became awkward again once Thorin asked him how he was settling in and how he liked his new flat. Fíli wasn’t sure if he was now supposed to invite Thorin to see the place or not, but decided against it. He had only been to Thorin’s place with his mother, and that had been before he moved to Erebor. It felt wrong to be the one to initiate their meeting in their private spaces.

But, aside from that slight awkwardness, Fíli was happy he had decided to have dinner with his uncle. He was self-aware enough to know that he actually did love his uncle. What Thorin felt for him, though, was more difficult to decipher.

***

On Saturday, Fíli went to the local market. They had a gorgeous sweet vegan bread at his new favourite stall. He also bought some home-made jam and stopped at Starbucks on his way home to get a large chai latte with soy milk. It was a breakfast fit for a king. It was a shame that he had no one to share it with. He hadn’t had a relationship since high school. And that was before he had figured out he was gay. He had no idea what he was going to do. Staring at men in shops certainly wasn’t going to help. 

He sighed as he opened the door to his flat. He was going to enjoy his food. He would absolutely not spend the day moping around.

He had just finished washing up after his little brunch when he heard something shatter just outside of his flat. The cursing that followed made him tentatively open his door – and then cling to it in shock. Sprawled across the hallway was the man who had been haunting his dreams. He scrambled up to his knees and looked up at Fíli.

“Sorry about that, man. I tripped.” He pushed his hair out of his face and got up. “Em, I’m your new neighbour?”

“Hi.” Fíli could only stare at him. The other’s grin became a bit strained.

“I just hope that broken shards are actually lucky. I… em… I'll just see if I can find my broom somewhere… must still be in the van...”

Fíli finally dragged his gaze away from the gorgeous mess of a man in front of him to the floor of the hallway. Oh. It was indeed littered with broken porcelain. He grimaced.

“Not to worry, I’ll get mine and clean this up, all right?”

He was nearly blinded by the beaming smile directed him. “Would you! Thanks, mate! That’s grand!”

“No worries,” Fíli repeated, and hurried into the safety of his apartment. He had taken a deep breath before he grabbed his broom and dustpan. Then he remembered to grab some tissue and a rubbish bag, too. Feeling very proud to be so organised (even though he had just been subjected to more gorgeousness than could be healthy), he went back out. The man was still standing there, looking a bit sheepish. A smaller man and a beautiful woman had joined him now, both with boxes in their arms and grinning.

“Thank you again. Here let me…” The man moved to take the broom. Then he looked sideways, as he was already busy clearing a path for his friends. “I’m Kíli by the way. And those two are Ori and Eowyn.”

“Fíli. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Kíli laughed, as he bent down to brush the shards into the dustpan. “I swear, I’m not usually such a noisy neighbour.”

“I wouldn’t count on that, Fíli,” Eowyn said as she walked passed them and kicked the door open to Kíli’s new flat. “He can be clumsy.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Kíli defended himself. “She’s still sore because I destroyed a vase in her place when I fell down the stairs, but I was sick, I swear!”

“He really was.” Ori had already come back out of the flat. 

Fíli crouched down to wrap the larger shards in tissue paper and put them in the rubbish bag. “Cheers.” Kíli scratched his head. “I guess we better get going, we have to return the van by five.”

“I can help,” Fíli offered automatically.

“Really?” Kíli's impossibly large eyes grew even bigger. “I’d be eternally grateful… you see,” he continued, as Fíli had already thrown the rubbish bag into his own apartment and closed the door on it, “Eowyn’s brother was supposed to help us. But of course Eomer, who really is the clumsy one,” he shouted back at Eowyn, who was a couple of steps behind them, “plays football, and some eejit kicked his knee instead of the ball last weekend. And…” he dropped his voice to a whisper and let Ori get ahead, “I love Ori and all, but even Eowyn is stronger than him. Are you up for some heavy lifting?”

If Kíli asked, then Fíli was sure he would be up for anything. He didn’t voice that thought though, and merely nodded. 

Kíli had meant ‘heavy’ when he talked about ‘heavy lifting’. He owned an old bureau, which was gorgeous, but clunky and massive. Seeing how Ori panted when he just had to carry up a box, Fíli wondered how Kíli had ever imagined getting that thing up two flights of stairs on his own. He also helped Kíli with the bed. By the time they were finished, both Kíli and Fíli were sweaty and panting. But they grinned at each other proudly. Eowyn looked at them.

“Ori and me are going to take the van back, all right Kíli? You should start cooking; I'm already starving!”

“ _You’re_ starving? Fíli and I did all the hard work!”

Eowyn took a sponge from an open box and threw it at Kíli, who dodged it.

Fíli felt a bit awkward when Kíli’s friends left the apartment. What was he supposed to do now? He scarcely knew Kíli after all; he shouldn’t just hang around in his apartment. Just as he worked on the best possible way to say goodbye, while at the same time inviting his gorgeous new neighbour to come around any time he wanted, Kíli turned to him.

“You’re staying for dinner, right? I prepared some food, and you helped us, after all.”

“I … um …” Fíli felt himself blush. “I’d love to, but I don’t think …” He had never stumbled so much over an explanation that he was vegan before. He assumed that Kíli might at the very least not be opposed to vegans, considering that he apparently shopped at Love Seitan, but he had started to doubt that Kíli was actually vegan himself. For one thing, it would just be too perfect if he were, and secondly, he had never seen him in the shop again or in any of the local vegan Facebook groups, either. But turning down a dinner invitation was hardly a good way to start getting to know Kíli better. 

“I’m vegan,” he finally managed. It was a simple enough sentence. Kíli beamed.

“That’s great! I was just wondering how I could gently warn you that while you’re welcome to share dinner with us, it’s going to be vegan.”

He bent down over a box on the counter. When he turned around, with a large Tupperware in his hand, he frowned.

“Hang on. I think I saw you recently at Love Seitan. You shop there, right?”

A warm feeling spread through Fíli. Kíli had noticed him at the shop! Not enough to immediately recognize him while they moved his stuff, but he remembered! He smiled belatedly. “Yes. I get most of my stuff from there. It’s on my way home from work. If you ever need anything but don’t have the time or anything, just let me know.”

“Cheers. I don’t need a lot of stuff from there. I prefer to cook simple stuff, you know.” He opened the Tupperware. “For tonight, it’s just vegan spag bol. Just needs to be warmed up. Have you seen my big pot anywhere…”

***

As soon as they had located the pots, Kíli looked at his phone.

“Eowyn and Ori will be back in about 30 minutes, I reckon. It’s too early to cook the pasta.” He bit his lower lip. “I mean, you could go back to your flat and wait, if you’d like, or…”

“Or?”

“I feel I've asked too much of you already, but I kind of need to put up my bed?”

Fíli hoped he wasn’t blushing. It wasn’t every day that he was invited into the bedroom of his walking wet dream. Of course, there wasn’t even a bed in the bedroom… He noticed with surprise that he was nodding, and Kíli was smiling.

A moment later, they were kneeling on the floor of Kíli’s new bedroom. Kíli pulled a comical grimace.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time to disassemble it.” He scratched his head sheepishly.

“Saves space in the van,” Fíli had made the same mistake.

“Yeah,” Kíli looked at the various parts. “What do you reckon, will I have a bed to sleep in tonight?”

“Sure.” Even if it was Fíli’s... but there was no need to add that. 

To Fíli’s slight disappointment they managed to assemble the bed without any difficulties. The difficult part was getting the huge mattress on top of it. Kíli then unearthed some sheets, and they put them on. Once they were finished, Kíli reclined on the bed.

“Fíli…” Was it wishful thinking, or was Kíli’s voice somehow lower now? Those huge brown eyes looked directly into his, and his smile was decidedly impish. Whatever Kíli was about to say was interrupted by Ori, who suddenly appeared in the door frame.

“There you are.”

Kíli jumped off the bed immediately and mumbled an apology for not having cooked anything yet. Fíli was ready to curse the poor man who had interrupted them.

***

Eowyn was not impressed by the lack of food. She and Kíli bickered while he cooked the pasta and warmed up the sauce. It smelled amazing. When they finally got round to eating it, it tasted amazing too. 

Just as they sat down, Kíli noticed that he had forgotten to get wine. So Fíli went over to his apartment to grab a selection of vegan wine, beer, and cider for them to share.

It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings Fíli had ever had since he moved to Erebor. Eventually, Kíli told him that he definitely needed to come over for dinner again.

“I need to prove to you that I can do more than SpagBol! I know it might not look like it, but I’m a fantastic cook. Amn’t I?” 

While Ori and Eowyn nodded, Fíli blushed.

“Well, I certainly can’t judge you either way. I don’t cook at all.”

Kíli gasped. “You don’t cook? How do you even survive?”

“Um, Pizza? Sandwiches? Ready made stuff.”

Kíli stared at him for a moment. A choked sound escaped from Eowyn that was most likely a stifled laughter, and that seemed to snap Kíli out of his stupor.

“You must come to dinner again!” he repeated.

And what could a smitten man do? Fíli grinned. “I would be happy to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr (weehee): [my tumblr](http://chelidona.tumblr.com/) You're always welcome to message me if you have any questions etc. (or at all really)
> 
> As an aside: I've been vegan for 16 years now. And one thing that amazes me is how popular vegan bolognaise is with non-vegans. Like, I've met tons of people who told me they like to eat meat but always cook vegan bolognaise because they prefer the taste. (Which is great but also a little bit mysterious).


	2. Deliciousness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fíli learns how to cook and gets to know his new neighbour better - that just fuels his infatuation. Loads of vegan food in this chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by Khafushun, who is just awesome. His suggestions are always great and some of the better sentences in this chapter are his. Of course, I fiddled with it after he betaed it, so as usual, any remaining mistakes or awkward phrases are entirely my fault.

Fíli was very tempted on Sunday to knock on his new neighbour’s door to ask if he needed any more help moving in. But he decided against it; he had already been promised a dinner invitation, after all, so he figured he really shouldn’t push his luck. Kíli knew where he lived, if he needed any help.

*

 

His misery ended Monday night. When he came home from work and opened his mailbox, he found a little note in it. Kíli’s phone number. He smiled as he walked up the stairs, clutching the precious piece of paper in his hand.

He texted Kíli as soon as he walked inside his own flat.

_Got your message. Cheers._

_Have you settled in?_

It took 10 minutes for Kíli to reply.

_I wish! Flat’s still a mess._

_If you don’t mind that - are you free Friday?_

 

Fíli quickly sent a message to say that he was, before wondering if maybe he should have waited at least 5 seconds. He really did not want to come across as too eager.

 

Luckily, Kíli’s reply came just as quickly:

 

_Great. I'll cook this time._

_We'll discuss your cooking lessons when you come over, ok?_

 

 _Sounds great,_ Fíli typed, and smiled. Friday couldn't come fast enough.

 

*

 

Friday morning, Fíli was pleasantly surprised to receive a new message from Kíli, asking if 7 o’clock would be too early to meet for dinner that night. Fíli decided that it wasn’t. True, he would need to leave work a little bit earlier than normal in order to be home in time to shower and change his clothes, but he could manage.

 

He swung by Love Seitan on his way home to buy some wine. He knew it wasn’t a date, but he still wanted to make a good impression. So, he’d bring wine and put on some of his best clothes. He didn’t know if Kíli was into men or not, but it couldn’t hurt to look his best. He made sure to pick a pair of trousers that showed off his bottom (since Fíli always received compliments when he did) and dug up his dark grey t-shirt; his mother at least always told him he looked gorgeous in it. A look in the mirror confirmed her words. He ruffled through the mop of blond hair on his head, which had gone a bit flat during the day. Still, he didn't look too shabby, if he said so himself.

*

 

He then paced in his own flat for 10 minutes until it was 7 o’clock. The stupid thing about visiting a neighbour was that there was little reason not to arrive right on time. Still, the waiting did Fíli's nerves no good.

 

Therefore, when Kíli opened the door with a bright smile and a cheerful, “There you are,” Fíli needed a moment to get his vocal chords under control. It was easy to forget just how much charisma the brunet had. Before he could say anything, he was ushered inside, and Kíli was delighted when Fíli presented him with the wine, mumbling something that could count as a greeting.

 

“Brilliant! I forgot to get some – it will go well with the baguette.”

 

“Baguette?”

 

“Wait 'til you try it!” Kíli gushed. “It’s one of my absolute favourite foods.”

 

*

 

He hadn’t been exaggerating. Kíli had spread a tomato-tofu paste on the baguette halves and then topped it with minced vegetables. It was heavenly. He hadn’t known it was possible to make tofu taste this good at home. The soft texture of the tofu was contrasted by the crunchy bread. Kíli had selected a bunch of different vegetables, all with different textures as well. It was so delicious, in fact, they could hardly speak as they both stuffed themselves with the bread.

 

Once they were finished, Kíli declined any help with the dishes, and carried everything to the kitchen himself. Fíli was sent to the living room to make himself comfortable on the couch.

 

There were some books and magazines on the table, and he couldn’t help but pick one up. It was a magazine on fitness for vegans. The books, he soon found, turned out to be about vegan nutrition. Those were topics he hadn’t really concerned himself with so far (apart from taking B12 supplements), so he began flipping through the magazine until Kíli returned. His neighbour laughed and took it from him.

 

“Don’t read that one, it’s full of crap.”

 

“Is it?”

 

“Yeah …” Kíli frowned, and Fíli was taken aback by the abrupt change in demeanour. He hadn’t known Kíli could look so fierce. “It used to be really informative, that’s why I subscribed, but in this issue they gave those narcissistic high carbers too much room to spout their ideas. It’s all bollocks, of course. I’ve already started to write my reply.”

 

Fíli’s obvious confusion led to a lengthy lecture from Kíli about his general opinion on some of the more radical fringes of veganism, particularly those advocating a plant-based, and often raw food, diet. Fíli managed to keep his smile in check. Kíli was obviously genuinely outraged, but it was fascinating (not to mention quite a turn-on) to watch him rant.

 

Kíli deflated a bit after a few moments. “Sorry. All of this misinformation just really pisses me off.”

 

“I can tell.” Fíli finally allowed himself to smile.

 

“They just …” Kíli smoothed his hair back. “Sorry, I won’t start again. It’s just frustrating because a lot of new vegans really believe this shit. And one of my professors, he's watched some videos online and now he thinks that’s how _all_ vegans eat. He's even told the class that a vegan diet is unhealthy and we're just deluded, so I went to him after class, and he wouldn't even listen to me. Now he just thinks I’m in the wrong course, or a radical or whatever and …. ARG!”

 

He took a deep breath, and Fíli took the opportunity to ask: “So you’re at university?”

 

Kíli laughed, showing off his perfect teeth. “I’m still a student. I'm studying sports management, and we’ve got to take a couple of classes on nutrition.” He pointed to the books on the table. “That’s why I got them, to be honest. I mean, before I was happy to just look stuff up on the internet, but I have to write an essay for that class, believe it or not. I’m going to write mine on being vegan as a professional athlete. There are actually some famous athletes who follow a plant-based diet and I’ve got all the information here, so if he fails me by claiming it’s not possible to be vegan and compete at a professional level, I will file a complaint. I’ve got all the evidence to back me up–“ He cut himself off rather abruptly. “Sorry, my rambling must be really boring.”

 

“No, not at all.” Fíli felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth again. He rarely smiled this much; he was generally so level-headed that most people, he supposed, would find him dull, but he loved to see the passion that animated Kíli.

 

That seemed to encourage Kíli, who then proceeded to tell him more about his proposed essay and the athletes he was going to use as examples. He even pulled up his laptop to prove to Fíli that Dwalin Fundin, a vegan wrestler, had responded to his email and was willing to sit down with Kíli for a short interview. Fíli had zero interest in wrestling and had never heard of the guy, but he certainly looked intimidating.

 

No, Fíli definitely preferred Kíli’s physique: it was obvious that the brunet worked out a lot, as his arms were well-defined and his t-shirt was tight enough to suggest a muscular torso, but his muscles weren’t bulging, not like this Dwalin’s.

 

*

 

All too soon, it was midnight, and Fíli reluctantly decided that he should head back to his own flat. Kíli let him go, but only after he got Fíli to agree to meet him again on Sunday, so Fíli could learn how to cook. Fíli was elated that Kíli seemed willing to have him around again so soon; particularly since, unlike him, the student actually had friends in town.

 

* * *

 

That Sunday, Fíli discovered that portobello mushrooms were Mahal’s gift to new and clueless vegans. They were natural vegan burgers – all he had to do was stick them in the oven and grill them. He could handle that (even if Kíli had apparently marinated the mushrooms in soy sauce before he had arrived).

 

While the mushrooms were roasting in the oven, they toasted the burger buns and sliced the tomatoes. When Kíli asked Fíli to get the lettuce out of the fridge, he turned around and blinked at what he saw. On Friday, there definitely hadn't been magnets with the bisexual flag all over the fridge door. Now there was a whole array. He had to laugh at the one that showed the Erebor coal mine in the colours of the bisexual flag. The old coal mine had been transformed into a tourist attraction; Thorin had sold it to the city. He knew that Thror, his great-grandfather who had built the mine, had been homophobic, and Fíli liked the irony.

 

But what he liked even more was the information that Kíli was apparently into men – which meant there was a chance he might become interested in Fíli. _Definitely_ a promising development, Fíli thought to himself. He adjusted his t-shirt again and fluffed his hair, and then he gave Kíli the lettuce.

*

When they put the burgers together, Kíli explained that they needed to put some lettuce on each half of the bun, because portobello burgers could get soggy. As far as Fíli was concerned, though, that was the only tricky thing. He was confident that he could put something like this together on his own. Kíli had used his own home-made barbecue sauce, but Fíli could buy some shop-bought variety. He had to admit that Kíli had picked the perfect beginner’s recipe.

 

He told Kíli as much when they had finished their lunch. Kíli rewarded him with a relieved grin.

 

“Cheers! I had given it so much thought, I even went on the internet to see what other people had to say, but needless to say, that wasn’t helpful.”

 

“I know, I just get confused.”

 

“You won’t for much longer,” Kíli promised him. “Really, cooking is easy once you’re confident with the basic stuff. Next time we’ll cook pasta with some tomato sauce, can’t believe you don’t even know how to do that already – sorry – but then we can do something with potatoes, then rice, and after that your carbs are all sorted!”

 

Fíli laughed. “It’s a bit more complicated than that though, isn’t it?”

 

“Depends.” Kíli shrugged. “There are of course about 100 ways to prepare potatoes, but we’re going for the basics, right? Speaking of which, get up: we’re going to make some hummus.”

 

“We’re going to make what?”

 

“Umbar’s gift to vegans.”

 

“I know what hummus is, you dolt. You can get it in any supermarket these days.”

 

Kíli laughed. “And it is very easy to make at home too. I always make a batch of hummus or something similar on Sunday for my lunches during the week.”

 

*

 

Kíli’s recipe for hummus was simple. Puree chickpeas with some tahini, olive oil and lemon juice, and then add more tahini, lemon juice, salt and cumin until he liked the taste. For the second batch, he also mixed in some jarred red peppers and basil.

 

“There you go.” He smiled triumphantly as he handed Fíli a plastic container with his share. “I admit that I sometimes buy ready-made stuff for bread myself, but home-made hummus beats everything else.”

 

Fíli had already sampled some and had to agree. He wondered if he should start heading home, but before he could do so, Kíli asked him what he’d like to drink, so he stayed.

 

*

 

On Friday, as promised, they cooked pasta with tomato sauce. Pasta, it turned out, was trickier than toasted burger buns. Kíli had printed out a recipe for tomato sauce but was grumbling a bit while they followed it, complaining that he usually just threw stuff together. But it turned out well in the end: they had some salad with it and made their own salad dressing, a simple vinaigrette.

 

As they cleaned up (this time Fíli insisted on helping), Kíli suddenly asked him if he knew about the vegan brunch that took place at the community centre every Sunday. Fíli had heard of it, but had never actually tried it.

 

“We should go!” Kíli exclaimed, and Fíli’s hopes rose up, only to be crushed by his very-next sentence. “Tauriel is my ex-girlfriend; she’s the one who runs it. She’s great, you’ll like her, and her food is divine.”

 

“Okay …” Fíli wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with that invitation. He hoped Kíli didn’t want to go just because he wanted to see his ex. Still, Fíli was not inclined to turn down an opportunity to spend more time with Kíli. If nothing else, it would be good to have at least one friend in Erebor.

 

***

 

It turned out that they both liked to sleep in on Sundays. Luckily, the brunch was running until two o’clock, so Kíli rang Fíli’s door around noon so they could catch the bus. The community centre that Tauriel rented every Sunday was situated in a beautiful park across town. The daffodils and crocuses were in full bloom, painting the grass purple and yellow.

 

Tauriel was busy frying some scrambled tofu when the two of them walked into the centre, but when Kíli called her name, she took the pan off the stove and turned around, beaming.

 

“Kíli! You didn’t tell me you were coming today!”

 

“Surprise.” He kissed her on her cheek and she swatted him with a towel.

 

“I’m working, silly. Who’s your friend?”

 

“That’s Fíli, he’s my neighbour.” Kíli bounced on his heels. “Can you believe it? He’s also a vegan, what are the odds?”

 

“Nice to meet you Fíli, I’m Tauriel. Sorry, but I have to get back to my scrambled tofu. Kíli can explain to you how this works. I hope I’ll catch you later!”

 

*

 

They took some food from the buffet – Fíli hardly knew what to take. He wasn’t used to so much choice anymore. There was white bread with raisins, rye bread, sweet rolls, croissants, three different kinds of jam, some spreads – he was quite sure that he wouldn’t attempt carrot-ginger, but the mushroom pâté looked nice – the scrambled tofu, vegan cold cuts, vegan mozzarella (one of Fíli’s weaknesses), tomatoes, cucumber, lemon-poppyseed muffins, raspberry scones and fruit salads. Plus orange juice, tea and coffee. It took a while until they had loaded their plates and looked for seats. They ended up sharing a table with a small middle-aged man and a slightly younger, even smaller woman.

 

The food was excellent, as promised. Fíli was just a bit bothered by Kíli’s enthusiastic retelling of how Tauriel had set this brunch up, how she was also starting a vegan magazine for Erebor, and how overall awesome she was. He knew this wasn’t a date, but he was still a bit jealous of Kíli’s obvious admiration for his ex-girlfriend. For that reason, he didn’t contribute much to the conversation.

 

Finally, there was a lull in the conversation (because even Kíli couldn’t stuff himself with sweet rolls and talk at the same time), and the small man at the table suddenly turned to Fíli.

 

“Excuse me for asking … but aren’t you Philip Prince?”

 

“I am.” Fíli smiled. “Do we know each other? You look vaguely familiar.”

 

“I’m Bilbo Baggins, I just started as Thorin’s personal assistant a couple of months ago.”

 

“Oh, I see. How does Durin, Inc. suit you?” Fíli enquired politely.

 

“Quite well!” Bilbo laughed nervously. “I’ll admit that Thorin and I had a bumpy start, but he seems to be happy with my work, at least. He invited me to dinner last Friday, to celebrate a new contract. And he even picked a restaurant with lovely vegan food, can you believe it?”

 

“Thorin is very considerate,” Fíli answered automatically (though not, he felt, very truthfully). “Which restaurant did you go to?”

 

“The Mill.”

 

As they kept chatting, Fíli slowly started to put the pieces together. He knew Thorin was gay, and he had heard from his mother how Thorin usually acted around men he was interested in. And just last week on the phone she had told Fíli to keep an eye out, as she suspected there was someone Thorin was interested in.

 

So Thorin's invitation to The Mill two weeks before hadn’t been an attempt to reconnect with his nephew after all. No, Fíli had apparently been a means to an end: Thorin had clearly just wanted a vegan to test The Mill's food before he took Bilbo there. The lovely muffin suddenly turned to ashes in his mouth, and the coffee began to taste like acid.

 

When Tauriel came over to their table to give Kíli hug, Fíli managed to tell her that the scrambled tofu was outstanding, and had only been topped by the lemon-poppyseed muffin. She seemed genuinely pleased to hear that. A moment later she was pulled into a conversation with Bilbo and his cousin Primula about baking, another topic that Fíli had absolutely nothing to contribute to. Needless to say, he was glad when Kíli finally suggested that they leave.

 

*

 

“So what’s bothering you?” Kíli asked him unexpectedly as they made their way through the park toward the bus stop. He misinterpreted the surprised look Fíli gave him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t pry. I’m too nosy, you don’t have to tell me what’s up, I just noticed ….” Kíli trailed off, and Fíli dared to put his hand lightly on Kíli’s shoulder.

 

“I’m not offended. I’m just a bit upset with my uncle. Bilbo is new to the company, I guess he isn’t in on the secret that we don’t get along very well.”

 

“Thorin Durin is your uncle?”

 

“Yep.” Fíli sighed. “He is. And before you ask, Bilbo probably knows what I look like because Thorin wants me to take over the company. He’s already 62; so believe it or not, people are already starting to suck up to me. I can't stand it.”

 

One reason why he hadn’t made any friends at work yet.

 

“To be fair, I don't think Bilbo really seems the type to do that.”

 

“No, I didn’t mean him, I think he seems genuinely friendly.”

 

“All right. So you’re just upset because Bilbo brought up your uncle? Is … sorry, but would it really be so bad to take over for your uncle someday?”

 

Fíli laughed. “I sound like a spoilt brat, I know. No, I love my current job in the company, it’s just …” he sighed, cursing his sense of loyalty. He couldn’t tell Kíli what upset him. “As I said, we don’t get on.” And then he realised at least one opportunity this conversation brought. “The only thing we’ve got in common is that we’re both gay.”

 

It was only a fleeting moment, but Fíli could swear he saw hope in Kíli’s eyes. Or maybe that was a reflection of his own hope. Before Fíli could give the matter any more thought, the brunet smiled. “That’s a good thing to have in common though. You’re not going to be disinherited for your sexuality.”

 

Fíli smiled wryly. “We’re good at finding tension elsewhere, but you're right, there’s no danger of him disinheriting me just because I’m gay.”

He sincerely hoped that Kíli didn’t get the wrong impression; he had come across like an over-privileged prat, complaining about the hard fate of inheriting one of the most lucrative businesses in Erebor. But then Kíli just asked what his current job in the company actually was. As it turned out, Kíli understood programming about as well as Fíli understood cooking, so the explanation filled the bus ride home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some explanations:  
> \- Regarding the wine: Wine (and some juices, e.g. apple juice) need to be filtered. Usually animal products are used in the process. Some vegans care, others don't. There are no animal products left in the wine/juice/vinegar, but animal products have been use to produce it, so yeah. Personally, I tend to try to buy vegan stuff to use at home, but I don't ask any questions when I'm invited or in a restaurant. I don't drink wine anyway, so that makes it easier.  
> \- If you don't know what people Kíli's rant refers to in this chapter, treasure your innocence. There are vegan fitness magazines, but the one they talk about is entirely fictional.  
> \- The baguette recipe is from Joanne Stepaniak's "The Vegan Source Book". It's a bit old as a source book, but her recipes are great and those baguettes (she calls them "pizza") taste exactly like some ready-made frozen stuff from my childhood (minus the cheese toppings, but who needs that if the tomato-tofu thingie is just the best thing ever? You can find the recipe [here](http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=1501&catId=11), but if you don't share my childhood memories it probably isn't half as good :D  
> \- I LOVE portobello mushrooms. They're not that easy to get in Switzerland, but I really don't get why anyone would buy a vegan burger if they can buy a portobello mushroom instead. It's also what I have for Christmas - I just fill it with some wild mushroom, top it with puff pastry cut out in a star shape and call it "Portobello Wellington"  
> \- The Sunday brunch Tauriel runs is inspired by "Vlowers" in Zurich, Switzerland. The food there is great and the woman who runs it is very friendly, although Tauriel is in no way based on her. Tauriel is strictly based on Tauriel in The Hobbit.
> 
> I think that's all :) Thank you SO much for reading, and remember, comments make my day :D


	3. Cinema

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kíli rectifies a slight misunderstanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta-read as always by the brilliant Khafushun (thank you so much)  
> He also made me aware of two small issues I should clarify to avoid confusion ... Rhovanion (the country of which Erebor is part of) is more or less based on Switzerland, where I live. So ...  
> Somebody (not any of the characters) is laid off in this chapter; in Switzerland that is hardly ever with immediate effect. That would only be allowed if there are very weighty reasons so most employers don't bother with it, because people can sue against it. If someone is dismissed they have to keep working (and get their wages!) for at least a month usually (I am not good with legal details).  
> Secondly, less importantly: There is a break when you watch a film in the cinema! People buy loads of ice-cream and pop-corn during the break, so it makes sense for the cinemas ;) In some cinemas there's a little countdown on the screen, telling you when the film starts again.

Later Fíli was listlessly going through his music, trying to find something to fit his mood. Nothing felt right, so he switched songs every 30 seconds.

He was surprised when his phone beeped. A message from Kíli.

_You don’t seem to be cleaning._

Followed by: _Want to come over?_

Fíli blinked. Of course, Kíli could hear him through the wall. The constantly changing music must be annoying. And he was indeed not cleaning, even though they had both said they would have to clean their flats when they parted earlier.

*

5 minutes later he was inside Kíli’s apartment. The brunet grinned.

“You didn’t seem to be doing anything very entertaining.”

“I wasn’t,” Fíli assured him.

“Good! Eowyn, Eomer, and Ori are going to come by later tonight to watch films; do you want to join us?”

“Sure.” Fíli felt his smile grow bigger. He loved doing things with Kíli, but he had to admit to himself that he loved just hanging out with a group of people. He hadn’t done that since he had moved to Erebor.

“Grand! So you’re ready to help me with the food?”

Fíli laughed. “I should have known you had an ulterior motive to invite me over.”

“Oh I did.” Kíli winked.

*

Fíli’s eyes widened when he saw the array of food on Kíli’s counter.

“Are you sure you’re only expecting three more people?”

Kíli laughed.

“Yes, quite sure. The leftovers are lunch and possibly dinner tomorrow. Here you go, that one is easy.”

Fíli frowned at the recipe Kíli handed him.

“Cookie dough dip? But … with chickpeas?”

“Yes, the surprise twist is that it doesn’t really taste like cookie dough, whatever those fancy food blogs say.” Kíli laughed when Fíli couldn’t come up with a reply. “Don’t make that face; it does taste nice enough.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I mainly make it because Eowyn is really into healthy food, and Eomer too although he won’t admit it. But there’ll also be some real chocolate chip cookies, guaranteed to contain nothing that’s good for you. Ori won’t eat anything else.”

“Your friends are complicated.”

“And not even vegan.”

“So what do you plan for dinner then? If Eowyn eats only healthy stuff, and Ori doesn’t …”

Kíli grinned sheepishly. “Pasta again, I’m afraid. Eowyn will eat white pasta, if it’s good quality. I plan to make a couple of sauces, so everyone can choose.”

*

They ended up cleaning the mixer an endless amount of times - Kíli admitted that he hadn’t quite considered that planning dinner and snacks which mainly consisted of items that had to be pureed was not so bright if one owned only one mixer. They needed the mixer to make a ranch dip with white beans, the cookie dough dip (with cocoa nibs instead of chocolate chips), wild garlic pesto, beetroot pesto and dried tomato pesto. On top of that, Kíli cooked some bolognaise. That really seemed like far too much food for five people. Especially because he was convinced he wasn’t going to be able to eat much, after the brunch. It was fun to help Kíli though, Fíli realised that he started to feel quite at home in the kitchen. At least in Kíli’s. When Kíli mentioned that he got the beetroot pesto idea from Tauriel, Fíli had to look down and pretend to concentrate on cleaning the countertop. Otherwise Kíli might have seen his jealousy.

“She’s a splendid cook.”

“She was the one who convinced me to try veganism and she taught me how to cook.” Kíli grinned. “I owe her a lot for that.”

“I can tell, it’s your greatest hobby now, isn’t it?”

“It really is.”

Because he obviously liked to punish himself, Fíli kept asking questions about Tauriel, and learnt that she was a few years older than Kíli and had studied nutrition. Kíli talked a little bit about how they met; she had come to his rescue when he had injured himself at the university’s gym, and then they had met again after signing up for the same archery class.

“Why are we talking so much about Tauriel and me?” Kíli finally asked. “I mean … she’s a great friend now, but we split up three years ago.”

“Just seems that you regret that,” Fíli mumbled. He looked down, but still saw Kíli staring.

“I’d regret to lose her friendship again,” the brunet said slowly. “But not that she’s not my girlfriend anymore. We work so much better as friends than as a couple.”

“Sorry.”

“You thought I’d take you to the brunch when my goal was to reconnect with Tauriel?”

“Well …” Kíli seemed to be so surprised, that Fíli didn’t want to admit it. “No. You just seem very attached to her.”

“I am, but as a friend. I became a vegan because of her, so that’ something I’m grateful for.”

He winked. “That’s how I got you into my kitchen too, right?”

“Right.” Fíli was grateful for his excellent self-control. He didn’t blush, he managed to pull his reluctant lips into a smirk.

*

A little bit later Fíli was introduced to Eomer, Eowyn’s brother. He was much more fun than Ori and, as it turned out, a huge fan of Durin Inc’s games.

Fíli ate his chocolate chip cookies covered in cookie dough dip while they watched the latest episodes of “Eorlingas.” Fíli had to excuse himself early though; the four students had late lectures on Monday, but he was expected in his office at eight o’clock in the morning. However, he could sincerely thank Kíli for a brilliant day; possibly the best since he had moved to Erebor.

***

Fíli’s week was awful. Thorin had fired the head of the design department. The reason was his incompetence, which was glaringly obvious. Unfortunately, that man did not understand that Fíli had barely any contact with Thorin and believed that Fíli had influenced the decision. Now he was intent on making his remaining weeks hell for Fíli. If he heard one more “joke” about “the prince” he might snap.

Thursday was particularly bad. Fíli and two of his colleagues were finally finished with the weapon design for the relaunch of their most popular game (”The battle for the Grey Mountains”). Of course, the head of the department, not surprisingly, sent an email round that their work was insufficient and he would thus have to postpone the team meeting in which they would discuss the final steps. Most people in the team were aware that it was rubbish, but it put them all back and the mood was not too charitable. Especially when one of his co-workers happened to look over his shoulder when he got an email from Thorin asking what the delay was about. This had to be the day when Thorin forgot about his professionalism and contacted Fíli directly. He didn’t deign to answer that email.

*

When Fíli opened his mailbox in the evening, he found a blank envelope. Probably a letter to all the tenants from the management. He frowned, not in the mood to deal with any stern reminder that the bicycle shed needed to be locked at all times or that if the tenant whose mattress blocked the way in the basement didn’t remove it within three days, all tenants would be charged for removal. Work was annoying enough at the moment.

He threw the letter onto his table when he came home and called Thorin back. He could hardly ignore the fact that Thorin was, when all was said and done, his boss. It was as awkward as he had feared. Subtlety didn’t work, so eventually he had to come out with:

“They all know that you made me your heir. John’s not the only one who thinks I had something to do with his dismissal.”

“But that is nonsense. I would not lay off somebody based on subjective opinions.”

“Thank you.”

There was a pause as Thorin decoded his nephew’s sarcasm.

“You know that was not what I meant,” he said gruffly. “I would not fire somebody for personal reasons.”

“I can’t help what they think,” Fíli repeated. “And to be honest, the situation now is just his petty revenge.”

“I will have to remove him immediately from his position if he keeps impeding work.”

Fíli spent 10 minutes trying to dissuade his uncle from that idea. Especially when Thorin hinted that he would put Fíli in charge until a replacement was found. It seemed very hard for his uncle to comprehend that if Fíli worked in a normal position in the company, as a game designer, he should not get special treatment. It ended with Thorin promising not to do anything rash but also threatening to move Fíli to a managerial position. He knew that would eventually have to happen, but he didn’t feel ready quite yet.

*

He forgot everything about the envelope until he got a text message at 8 o’clock. Kíli. He smiled as he read it.

_Did you get my letter?_

_Which letter?_

_I left one in your mailbox?_

_A letter?_

This didn’t make sense. Why couldn’t Kíli call or text. One minute later, his phone beeped again.

_Yes._

Fíli frowned and hunted for the mysterious letter. When he opened it, a printout of two cinema tickets fell out. And a card, covered in neat handwriting. Before he could read it, he got another message.

_Did you find it?_

He ignored the message and started reading.

_Hey Fíli,_

_Just so you don’t get the wrong idea again when I ask you on a date, would you like to go out tomorrow instead of doing our usual cooking lesson? If you don’t like the film, you can pick another. I promise I won’t talk about other people!_

_If you don’t want to, I hope things won’t be awkward. You’re still welcome to come over and cook._

_Best,_

_Kíli_

Oh. Fíli had to sit down on his couch. By the time he reread the letter three times, he had two more messages.

_Did you find it?_

_Did you read it??_

Right. Poor Kíli was probably a bit nervous. This was a bold move and Fíli understood why he had resorted to a letter instead of text.

_Yes. I’d love to go to the cinema with you tomorrow._

_Perfect! Can you be at Durin’s statue tomorrow around 7?_

_Sure._

_Good! See you then. Looking forward to it._

_Good night_

*

Fíli took a deep breath. He had to suppress the impulse to start pacing with some force. Kíli was his next-door neighbour. He would hear him if he began to get rid of his excitement that way.

So Fíli walked to his bedroom, which didn’t adjoin to Kíli’s flat, and threw himself on the bed. He muffled his scream with his pillow. Kíli had asked him on a date! A date! And he had paid for the tickets! He was actually interested! Who cared about nonsense at work when the most gorgeous, most charming man in the entire world had asked him out on a date?

It was funny, Fíli was self-confident in everything but asking people out -- he had always had trouble with that. He would not have mustered the courage to ask Kíli out for a long time, but luckily, the brunet had beaten him to it. It was somehow very much like his passionate and impulsive neighbour.

* * *

Friday Fíli was late for work because he had worried for too long about what to wear. His favourite shirt would be creased after a whole day at the office. So that was a no. He had already worn the grey one, the one that looked most attractive on him. And he shouldn’t wear a t-shirt anyway, he remembered.

*

Because Thorin was apparently dreadful at taking hints, Fíli had received an email late on Thursday evening. He had a meeting with HR today about the qualifications for the new head of design. Balin Fundin was a very formal old man and he was certainly aware that Fíli’s presence was entirely due to his relationship to Thorin and not related to his actual qualifications. He sighed. Suit it was. He picked a dark blue shirt. It brought out his eyes, according to the shop assistant anyway. He then spent so much time wondering if he should shave or not, and if his hair would look better in a ponytail or not, that he was nearly too late for his meeting. Thorin was there too, which didn’t help his nervousness at all.

* * *

He was at the statue at 6:50; it was not too far from his office. The weather was warm enough for him to remove his jacket and he had also taken off his tie, feeling less silly like this. Kíli arrived at 7:10, slightly out of breath. He looked utterly gorgeous in a tight yellow shirt and tight jeans.

“Sorry, work took longer than I thought, and I had to change and …” He took in Fíli’s appearance and started. “And I feel underdressed.”

Fíli laughed, feeling a bit self-conscious too. “I had a meeting today, sorry. I’m overdressed.”

“No, you … you look fantastic. That shirt really brings out your eyes.”

Good thing he had listened to the shop assistant then. Fíli smiled. “Cheers. You look good yourself.”

Kíli laughed and shook his hair out. “Well, maybe we should stop the compliments and go and grab something to eat? We have some time before the film starts and I’m famished.”

*

Kíli was more organised than he had let on; he had actually booked a table in a small restaurant across the street from the cinema. They had a good selection of vegan food - the owner was from Gondor, but they served dishes from around the Bay of Belfalas. Fíli ordered a risotto with spring greens, while Kíli opted for a vegan moussaka.

The brunet really seemed famished. He devoured the bread basket, until he realised there was only one piece of bread left.

“Em … do you want that?” he offered with a sheepish grin, pushing the basket towards Fíli. The blond just laughed and pushed it back.

“Help yourself. I’m not that hungry.”

“Ta.” Kíli wolfed the bread down and sighed. “All right, I’m better. Sorry.”

“You’re fine. You’re starved, eh?”

“I am … work was exhausting today.”

“What is it you actually do?”

“Oh, did I never tell you?” Kíli grinned. “I’m one of those evil bicycle messengers. It’s a good job when you’re studying sports. Keeps you fit.”

“I bet it does.” Fíli could not imagine making his money by cycling up and down the slopes of Erebor.

“I was a bit late just now, because of a last minute delivery. Sorry again.”

“No problem.”

Their drinks arrived before it could get awkward. And once the food arrived they hardly wasted time talking.

*

They made it to the cinema just in time. Of course Kíli had gotten them tickets at the back of the cinema and for a film that had already been on for a couple of weeks. The auditorium was practically empty.

Fíli barely noticed the film on the screen. Kíli didn’t even wait until the commercials were finished to brush his fingers against Fíli’s in a silent question, and of course Fíli had entangled them. After that, they just sat there like virginal teenagers, playing with each other's fingers. Occasionally, Fíli rubbed his thumb over the palm of Kíli’s hand. During the break, Fíli insisted on being the one who bought the popcorn. Once he was back, Kíli and he tried to reconstruct the film so far, but neither one had been paying much attention. Just as the countdown told them that the film would start again in less than a minute, Kíli leaned closer to Fíli.

“Do you actually want to stick around for this? I don’t know about you, but I have no idea what’s been going on.”

“True.” Fíli got up. Of course the film started again before they were out and the other five people were hissing angrily.

Fíli attempted to mumble apologies, but Kíli took his hand and dragged him out.

*

Once they were in the empty hallway, Kíli stopped.

“So …” He cocked his head in a display of nonchalance that was clearly hiding nervousness. “Do I get to kiss you?”

Fíli chuckled and stood on his toes to peck Kíli’s lips. He felt those strong arms come around his waist and support him, as he still balanced on his toes. Kíli chuckled.

“Is that all?”

Fíli shook his head and leaned forward again. Kíli met him halfway, lips surprisingly soft. His kiss was tentative and before it could become anything more, the door to the next auditorium opened and people came streaming out. They hastily disengaged and followed them outside.

*

They stood in front of the cinema, both not too sure what to do next. While the days had become warmer, the air was still chilly at this of the evening and Fíli pulled his jacket tighter around himself.

“Should we go to a bar?” Kíli asked tentatively.

Fíli pulled a face. “I don’t want to sound old, but I had a shitty week at work, I don’t think alcohol is a good idea. I’d rather have a coffee.”

“So, em … in that case, I have some coffee in my flat?” Kíli waggled his brows.

“I love coffee,” Fíli said as seriously as he could.

“Grand.”

Kíli squeezed his hand for a moment as they walked to the bus stop. Neither seemed to know what to say on the ride home. Fíli was very grateful that it was a short ride.

***

Kíli did actually prepare coffee and served it with cookies. Fíli knew Kíli well enough by now to realise that they both were covering their nervousness. They were sitting on the couch, but with a friendly distance between them. He took a deep breath and moved a little closer.

“Thank you for the date.”

Kíli chuckled. “That’s what you’re supposed to write in your message later.”

“Am I? What else should I write?”

“What a fantastic night it was and what a great kisser I am.”

“I hardly know that yet,” Fíli protested, but could not stop the smile tugging at his mouth.

“Yet.” Kíli bent forward and kissed Fíli’s cheek. “Your dimples are going to be the death of me.”

Before Fíli could comment on that, Kíli had closed the distance between them and cupped Fíli’s face with one hand. He pressed his lips against Fíli’s with surprising gentleness. When he pulled back, Fíli tried to follow him.

“All right?” Kíli’s hand was still on his face, his thumb rubbed against the stubble on Fíli’s jaw.

“Very,” Fíli breathed and then Kíli kissed him again, more insistently this time.

Fíli heard himself make a muffled sound against Kíli’s lips as he was being pushed onto his back, ending up horizontal on the couch with Kíli straddling his hips. He had barely blinked when Kíli’s lips covered his again. Kíli’s strong hands caressed his neck and shoulders.

Kíli magically found Fíli’s weak spot, just behind his ears and he was gasping when Kíli’s finger massaged him there, hips bucking up automatically.

Kíli drew back for a moment.

“Is this okay … this was our first date and …”

Fíli groaned and tried to pull him back down.

“Are we seriously doing this by some sort of rulebook?”

Kíli resisted for a second, before an impish grin spread his lips.

“Absolutely not,” he promised. When he dived down, he aimed for Fíli’s ears, licking and nibbling the sensitive skin.

* * *

Kíli was a jokester. Fíli had never laughed so much in bed with someone before. The brunet would alternatively drive him wild with desire and then tickle him or tell a joke. They eventually moved to the bedroom, losing their clothes along the way. By the time Kíli produced some lube and condoms and asked if that would be okay, Fíli had been ready to beg him to finally get on with it. He shivered when Kíli drew patterns on his back to relax him while he stretched Fíli.

He took his sweet time pushing into Fíli and laughed breathlessly when Fíli ordered him to go faster. Despite the light-heartedness, it was the most intense experience Fíli had ever had. Kíli occupied his every sense and his every thought as they moved together.

Kíli rolled off of Fíli after he came, and quickly chucked the used condom across the room. Fíli was too exhausted to even care if there was a bin in that direction.

*

Once he caught his breath again, Kíli pushed his nose against Fíli’s cheek.

“If you stay the night, I’ll make breakfast for you tomorrow.”

Fíli turned his head and pressed an open-mouthed kiss on Kíli’s jaw.

“I might be tempted if the breakfast is good.”

“It will be amazing,” Kíli promised, eyes sparkling. Then a tiny crease appeared between his eyes. “Unless you want it really early.”

“No.”

“So what do you want?” Kíli’s eyes lit up as always when he contemplated cooking. “Waffles? I have a waffle iron now … although I think I’m out of clotted cream. Pancakes? I have this really amazing recipe for peanut butter pancakes, or of course regular pancakes … I’m not good with crêpes but …”

Fíli laughed and shushed him gently. “That’s all great, but after all the food tonight, I doubt I could do any of that justice.”

“I clearly didn’t wear you out enough.” The sparkle in his eyes was quite alarming so Fíli threw his arm over Kíli’s body.

“I’m shattered. Promise.”

“All right. Let go of me, please, I’ll get a cloth to clean us up first.”

Fíli released him very reluctantly.

* * *

Fíli was woken up by gentle fingers caressing his face and pushing the hair out of his face. It took him a few seconds to realise where he was and who he was in bed with. He opened his eyes reluctantly. Yes, it was as he had feared. Kíli looked devastatingly gorgeous in the morning. Nobody was supposed to look cute or gorgeous with an impression of their cushion wrinkling their face, but Kíli did. His hair was a complete mess, but his large brown eyes sparkled as he looked down at Fíli.

“Don’t call me sleeping beauty,” the blond warned him.

“But you were sleeping and you’re a beauty,” Kíli protested, dodging Fíli’s hand. “Sorry.”

“You’re not.”

Kíli chuckled and threaded his fingers through Fíli’s tousled hair.

“Are you always this grumpy in the morning?”

“I’m not grumpy!” Fíli protested. “Just half asleep and you’re pulling my hair.”

He softened his words by reaching out and caressing Kíli’s side. The brunet smiled and pecked his cheek. He stilled his hand on Fíli’s head and looked at him earnestly.

“Did you have a good time yesterday?”

Fíli smirked. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I? My own bed is literally not even two minutes walking from here.”

Kíli beamed and leaned forward to peck Fíli’s nose.

“True. I was really nervous though.”

“Hmm. But at least I knew it was a date.”

Kíli groaned and hid his face in his cushion.

“I’m an idiot. That brunch was meant as a date. Just, I mean I was so attracted to you when I met you, I don’t know how I managed to make actual conversation when you opened your door and smiled, with those blasted dimples, and your gorgeous voice, and all that hair and … well, I wasn’t sure you’re into men to, I thought I’d figure it out during brunch, and I guess I got a bit nervous so I talked too much about Tauriel instead?”

Fíli couldn’t help but chuckle, as he patted Kíli’s back.

“I’m sorry I got the wrong idea.”

“It’s perfectly understandable that you did.” Kíli sighed and looked up again at Fíli. “You have no idea how much the others laughed at me. Eowyn and Eomer can be really smug little bastards. But at least you told me that you’re gay on the way home, so that helped when I booked those stupid tickets on a whim.”

“They were not stupid.”

“What do you remember of the film?”

“Um … nothing?”

“See … stupid.” He pulled Fíli closer for a kiss.

That distracted both of them well enough as they made out lazily.

*

Kíli did end up making waffles. It was nearly noon by the they had made it out of bed and showered; Fíli had showered in his own flat, it had seemed a bit silly to use Kíli’s stuff if his own shower was next door. Kíli had whined about “shower sex” but by then they were both too hungry for that to be a serious possibility. Instead, they were feeding each other waffles and made an absolute mess on the table, the floor, and their clothes with the syrup.

All in all, it was a perfect morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note on the food:  
> Wild Garlic is the best thing ever! Our forests here smell of it in early spring and it's so yummy! Unfortunately I can't have it raw, but wild garlic pesto is one of my favourite things about spring. There's no recipe, just throw some wild garlic, some oil, some salt and some nuts in a blender.  
> The vegan ranch dip is from "The Vegan Lunchbox" and because it is in a cookbook, I can't really give the recipe here.  
> The [cookie dough dip](http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/05/23/want-to-eat-an-entire-bowl-of-cookie-dough/) \- I really love it with strawberries or apples, but the resememblances to actual cookie dough is slight. If you use peanut butter it comes a bit closer to the original, mainly because it is such a dominant flavour both in the dough and the dip ;)  
> I have no idea where I've got my chocolate chip cookie recipe from, I've used it for 15 years and every time I try something new, family and friends complain that it isn't as good -_- That one uses commercial egg replacer, by the way, one of the best vegan things ever (it's so much handier to have a powder rather than deal with eggs). Anyway, if you want it, you can message me ;) 
> 
> About the "evilness" of bicycle messengers: I don't know how the climate is in other towns, in Zurich many people (pedestrians and drivers alike) hate them because they tend to ride a bit recklessly ;) But despite the fact that some of the hills are a bit steep, they're very popular with businesses apparently.
> 
> Also: I made a big mistake when I decided on Fíli's job. I have zero idea how a design department for a video game works. At all. Sorry if I messed up too badly?
> 
> (oh, and to continue the lecture on dismissals in Switzerland: What Thorin is threating to do with Fíli's immediate boss is to release him from work; he'd still get his salary but would not be allowed in the office anymore. That seems like a good deal, but it actually makes it harder to find a new job, because for a new employer that means "old employer didn't want to risk legal troubles but this person must have done really bad work")
> 
> My [tumblr](http://chelidona.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Last but not least: If you enjoyed this a little bit, I'd be so happy to get a little comment!


	4. A chapter full of food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fíli and Kíli establish a routine and Fíli keeps discovering the world of vegan food. And fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was betaed and edited by [Khafushun](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Khafushun/pseuds/Khafushun), as usual. He spent hours on sorting out my mess, thank you so so much!

They spent the entire day together that Saturday, just lazing around Kíli’s flat. It was a bit awkward when Fili left that evening. They couldn’t quite say it, but both obviously felt that sharing a bed two nights in a row would be going too fast. So Fíli left just after dinner, but they sent each other a text to say good night.

 

*

 

On Monday, Fíli was back in his office. All of the redesign work they had done was now pointless, and everyone knew it. And it hadn’t been a secret that Fíli had been present at Thorin’s meeting with HR.  

 

Fíli wished he was better with people; had he had a bond with at least one of his coworkers, he could have discussed the meeting with them before it had happened. That way, he would have seemed more like a delegate of the entire team instead of a traitor -- which was how he currently felt. It seemed as if he had gone behind everyone’s backs to attend the meeting, even though he knew he hadn’t done anything of the sort.

 

He was surprised when his co-worker, Arwen, asked if she could join him for lunch that day. They had been working in the same office ever since Fíli had arrived in Erebor, but so far their conversation had been little more than, “Hello, how are you?”

 

*

 

They ended up going to a restaurant inside of the department store next door, which luckily had a vegan menu item that day: smoked tofu goulash with potatoes and overcooked vegetables. The smell of the cheap spice mix reminded Fíli of the cafeteria at his old school. Nevertheless, he was reasonably certain that Arwen wasn’t after some friendly chit-chat, so who cared what the dish tasted like.

 

Indeed, Arwen went straight to her point just as soon as they had found a table to sit at:

 

“Is it true that you met with Thorin Durin and Balin Fundin on Friday to discuss the job advert for our new head of department?”

 

“Yes.” He was tempted to stare at his potatoes, but forced himself to look straight at her. She nodded.

 

“Is that like top-secret, or could you tell us what is going on?”

 

“Not much is going on,” Fíli protested. “Thorin isn’t looking to restructure the department, we just looked at the old job advert Balin pulled up and discussed if anything needed to be changed.”

 

“So the position is never going to be advertised internally?”

 

Fíli had a feeling that he shouldn’t pass on so much information, but he couldn’t care less right now. “It will, but there isn’t that much time to find a replacement, so we can’t afford to advertise it internally first.” He tried to smile. “Are you thinking of applying?”

 

“Well …” She seemed taken aback and put her fork down to play with a strand of her hair. “It has crossed my mind,” she admitted. “But it isn’t only about me … We’re close to finishing a project, I just don’t think it would be a good idea to bring in somebody new right now.”

 

“That is a fair point.”

 

It was one he had brought up with Thorin and Balin already, in fact. He managed to steer the topic towards the project, though, and Arwen went along with it.

 

*   *   *

 

When he came home that evening, he faced a dilemma, one he had done his best not to think about over the weekend. He knew Kíli would come home a bit later - on Mondays, he attended a lecture between 10 and 12 and then went to work. If they weren’t neighbours, Fíli doubted that they would spend this evening together. As it was, however, they lived right next to each other, so it could be a bit weird if they didn’t see each other at all.

 

Kíli solved the problem by ringing Fíli’s bell as soon as he came home. Fíli had just made a pot of tea, and when he asked Kíli if he’d like some, the other smiled. They sat on Fíli’s couch, each enjoying their tea, while holding hands. Then Kíli stretched.

 

“What are you going to have for dinner tonight?”

 

“Just some bread and stuff.”

 

“So … would it be totally weird if I brought my salad over so we could share dinner? I mean I’m tired and not much fun, but …”

 

“Sure.” Fíli didn’t even need to hear the end of that sentence.

 

*

 

Kíli had prepared a carrot salad with caraway seeds as well as a tahini sauce to go with a green salad he had bought on his way home from work. They shared it along with some sourdough bread that Fíli had bought at the local bakery, which went well with an apple-onion spread (based on sunflower seeds) that Fíli already happened to have.

 

Kíli talked about an annoying customer while they ate, and while his tale was quite funny, he really wasn’t as animated as usual. Once they were done, Fíli insisted that Kíli sit down on the couch while he took care of the cleaning up. It wasn’t much anyway. When he joined Kíli on the couch again, he was immediately pulled into the taller man’s arms.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“No problem.” Fíli shifted a bit so he could lean in more comfortably. “Have you watched the new ‘Eorlingas’ episode yet?”

 

Kíli hadn’t, so they cuddled while they watched the ancient horsemen of Rohan fight intruders from Dunland. Fíli’s favourite character, Déorwine, narrowly escaped death several times. Kíli chuckled every time Fíli winced. His favourites were Goldwine and Elfwine, brother and sister. They were in Edoras, rooting out a spy-network and didn’t figure much in the episode.

 

In the end, Kíli was clearly beat, and Fíli suggested that Kíli could stay the night. Kíli protested, explaining that he wasn’t up for any “fun,” but Fíli assured him that all the fun he was after was a cuddle and a morning kiss.

 

*   *   *

 

He got his good morning kiss; they even found time to make out in the shower (even if that meant Fíli was 10 minutes late getting to the office).

 

He had a lunch-date with Thorin that day, just a couple of sandwiches in Thorin’s office. It was such a relief that there were decent vegan sandwiches available at the vegan takeaway nearby. He was vaguely worried about why Thorin would want to see him again so soon, though.

 

Bilbo was there too this time, and it was really hard to miss how much Thorin adored his secretary. Thorin wouldn’t even let the poor man open his water bottle himself, he mumbled something about “soft little hands” and did it for him. Bilbo was obviously not too happy about this, and quickly brought up business.

 

“So,” Bilbo said pleasantly, “we’ve had more complaints about John. Apparently, he’s actively delaying the release of _The Battle for the Grey Mountains_. Is that correct?”

 

Fíli just nodded; there was no point denying it at this stage. Thorin frowned.

 

“I see no solution but to release him from work and ban him from the office buildings. It is regrettable that it has come to this, but I won’t tolerate a delay due to the bruised ego of an idiot whose incompetence has already cost us. You will lead your department for the time being.”

 

“Thorin ….” Fíli put his sandwich down. “I agree that we need somebody internal to bring this forward; it would take too long for somebody new to get the full picture. But I’m not the most senior. What about Arwen, or Aragorn, or …”

 

“Fíli, you are working for Erebor Inc. because it’s the family business and you’re the heir,” Thorin grumbled. “And you won’t be able to go from simple designer to president. You need more experience on an executive level.”

 

“I …” Fíli didn’t have anything to say in opposition to that. Thorin was right, unfortunately, and he could think of no further arguments.

 

*    *    *

 

Fíli pulled out his phone, once he had managed to get a seat on the bus home, and found two text messages from Kíli: the first telling him that he would be home a bit later than usual, and the second asking him if he still wanted to hang out. Fíli wasn’t sure how wise it was to spend all their time together so soon, Kíli might start to think of him as dull, but on the other hand, he also needed some distraction. So, he wrote back that he had had a busy day, but would love to come by Kíli’s flat.

 

They actually arrived home at the same time. Fíli had just put the key in the lock when Kíli’s bike turned around the corner. Fíli held the door open for Kíli to carry his bike to the basement and then waited for him before they climbed the stairs together.

 

“So …” Kíli headed automatically to the kitchen once they were in his flat. “I meant to make lasagne, but then one of my colleagues had an accident, and I had to work longer … so I guess it’s just going to be some fried vegetables with tofu if that’s all right with you? There’s some stuff I need to use up anyway.”

 

“Um … is your colleague ok?” Fíli didn’t like hearing about the dangers of Kíli’s job, but he had to ask.

 

“He’s in the hospital right now, but it looks good. Nothing permanent.” Kíli grimaced. “We don’t know exactly what happened yet.”

 

He seemed to consider that topic closed and pulled out three carrots, a few celery stalks, spring onions, a large green bell pepper and some purple tomatoes out of his fridge as well as a block of seasoned tofu. “I hope you’re okay with a ton of vegetables in this, I only had chocolate for lunch, and I’m really craving something healthy right now.”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

They fell into their usual routine; Fíli was getting better at dicing vegetables finely. Kíli fried the vegetables along with the tofu, only seasoning them with salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence. The pepper, Kíli told him proudly, was from Kampot, which made it the best pepper in the world. He handed it to Fíli to smell first. Its fragrance was decidedly sweeter than that of the ordinary pepper Fíli had in his pepper mill at home. A little bit like eucalyptus even.

 

As the aroma of freshly roasted vegetables wafted through the kitchen, Kíli put the flame on low and turned to Fíli. He grabbed the smaller man’s hand and pulled him closer, planting a kiss on Fíli’s forehead.

 

“Sorry I didn’t greet you properly, I’m starving.”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

“Are you all right?”  Kíli scrutinized Fíli’s face. “What’s up?”

 

“Nothing,” Fíli mumbled, but his eyes wouldn’t meet Kíli’s.

 

Kíli let him go and got out two plates and some bread, which Fíli automatically carried to the table.

 

When they had sat down to eat, Kíli looked at him again.

 

“Look, you don’t have to tell me, but I can see something is up. I haven’t seen any dimples today.”

 

Fíli had to chuckle at that, and Kíli smiled.

 

“That’s better. So?”

 

Fíli wasn’t used to people encouraging him to open up; his family was not big on showing emotions (his uncle Thorin was the prime example, but his mother wasn’t much better). So far, Fíli hadn’t told Kíli much about his troubles at Erebor Inc. As crazy as he was about Kíli, they had only known each other for a little over a month; he hadn’t wanted to bore him with the details, and it also felt disloyal to discuss the company’s problems with outsiders. Now, however, he gave Kíli the basics as he explained why he might suddenly have less time for Kíli in the near future.

 

Once they put the dishes back in the kitchen, Kíli put his hand gently on Fíli’s elbow.

 

“This is sooner than you expected, right?”

 

“Much sooner.” Fíli sighed. Kíli grabbed his hand led him to the couch to sit down. Kíli pulled Fíli tightly against his chest until Fíli’s head was resting under Kíli’s chin.

 

“What are you going to do then?” Kíli asked softly, threading fingers through Fíli’s hair. “Tell your uncle you won’t do it?”

 

Snuggled against Kíli, this didn’t seem as bad as it had back in the office.

 

“As if he’d listen. And it’s Thorin’s right to demand a show of commitment,” Fíli said in his most reasonable voice. “He put a lot of effort in this company, he rebuilt it from scratch. And he decided that he’d like me to inherit it. But this is his life’s work. He is entitled to see some commitment from me too.”

 

As he was speaking, he realised how true his words were. He had to grow up and make a decision. Become his uncle’s heir in more than name only, and commit to learning as much as possible to continue Thorin’s work -- or tell Thorin straight-out that he wouldn’t do it. Thorin was not getting any younger, and it would take years until Fíli was ready.

 

Kíli put his arms around Fíli. “You can use this time as head of the department to think, maybe? You’re going to need to make a decision then.”

 

“Yes, and I will.” He sighed. “I’m just a bit worried because this is so sudden.”

 

“Sure.” Kíli rubbed his back. “Look, I’ll make us some tea, and then I’ll let you work on preparing for your meeting tomorrow.”

 

*

 

He did. Fíli got everything he needed at Kíli’s flat. And when it was midnight, Kíli forced him to stop and come to bed. He cooked Fíli apricot-orange oatmeal in the morning, claiming that he needed something substantial to survive the day. And he also found the time to pack Fíli a couple of sandwiches and energy bars.

 

“Don’t get used to this, though,” Kíli said lightly as they walked out of the building together (for once, their schedules matched).

 

“I won’t,” Fíli assured him, still smiling widely, the briefcase with his food and his notes clutched tightly in his hand. The sun was shining, and Kíli had prepared lunch for him. He had a feeling it was going to be a great day.

 

*   *   *

 

Two weeks later, Fíli had made some headway into leading the design department. Thanks largely to Arwen and Aragorn, _The Battle for the Grey Mountains_ was back on schedule (although he agreed with Arwen that they needed a better name for the relaunch). Consequently, he now had time to go to the Erebor Vegan Street Fair over the coming weekend.

 

It was in its second year, but he hadn’t lived in Erebor the year before, so this was his first time attending. Vegan stalls were taking over the courtyard of one of the big shopping centres on the outskirts of Erebor near Thror’s gate; there was going to be plenty of food, of course, but it would also be a chance to discover small local companies who produced anything from artisan vegan cheese to facial cream. Tauriel was also going to be there with a small table, advertising her vegan brunch and her vegan magazine.

 

For once, he and Kíli actually got up early; Tauriel had warned them that it had been very busy the day before. The first thing that caught Fíli’s eyes was a little stall selling vegan frozen yogurt. _Vegan frozen yogurt_. Kíli laughed at his excitement and insisted that they wouldn’t have frozen yogurt for breakfast. It wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of other food around.

 

Fíli had only been a vegan for about a year, but he was already overwhelmed by all of the choices; he wasn’t used to that anymore. There was no way he could sample even half of the food being offered.

 

In the end, Kíli ended up eating a waffle for breakfast, quite sensibly, while Fíli had a forest berry strudel with vanilla sauce. It was divine, even though he had to drown out the sounds of Kíli insisting that his own waffles were better. He then made Kíli try some of the strudel, and Kíli’s glittering eyes told him that the challenge was accepted: Kíli would attempt to recreate it, and Fíli could only benefit.

 

They were exploring the other stalls while trying to raise an appetite for all the other great looking food. When Fíli spotted the stall with supplements, he discreetly tried to shield the view from Kíli. He knew his boyfriend well enough by now; he would not be able to resist browsing through it, even though he rarely used supplements himself. He was just enthusiastic about anything related to vegan nutrition.

 

Of course, trying to shield Kíli’s view never worked. While Fíli was still pretending to take an interested in coconut milk baths, Kíli skipped past him. Sighing, Fíli followed, though tubs of vegan protein powder held little to no interest for him. There were also some protein bars, energy bars, and “superfood” powders, so he inspected those while Kíli read the labels on the protein tubs. It didn’t take long for the burly man behind the stall to finish his discussion with another customer, and once he did, he turned to Kíli.

 

“May I help you?”

 

“Aren’t you Dwalin Fundin?” Kíli smiled at him. The man frowned.

 

“I am.”

 

“I’m Kíli, you agreed to meet with me for an interview for my research paper, but we haven’t scheduled a date yet.”

 

The man burst out laughing. “You mean I had to cancel twice.”

 

Kíli wasn’t abashed in the slightest. “Well, yes. But you did suggest next Friday, didn’t you?”

 

“Yes, and I will make sure to make it this time.”

 

They couldn’t talk much more, as the place was getting crowded, and more people were showing an interest in Dwalin’s products.

 

*   *   *

 

So what would they eat for lunch? Risotto with dried tomatoes? Empanadas? Vegan doner? Cig Kofte? Fíli had never had one before, but they looked so good. But there was also soup served in bread bowls, as well as three different food trucks with burgers. How could anybody choose here? Kíli was attracted to the idea of a burger with a mango-almond sauce, but Fíli thought those of another stall looked more appealing - based on seitan rather than kidney beans, and served with vegan mayonnaise. More sensible, he thought, all in all.

 

Of course, vegan burgers were available at the market every Wednesday, and Fíli often had one for lunch then. So perhaps he ought to choose something a bit more special while he could.

 

For instance, Fíli had never had Kottu Roti in his life, but the idea of chopping up roti and frying it with curry leaves and vegetables suddenly made so much sense once he smelled the pungent aroma of the dish. It was hard to resist the subtle combination of onion, chili, and curry leaves. They had added plenty of cabbage, too, which Fíli discovered was practically made to be fried in combination with ginger, garlic and the other spices that the dish required. It was heaven on a cheap plastic fork. Kíli, meanwhile, had settled on the dried tomato risotto. Judging by the look of bliss on his face, it also appeared to have been a good decision.

 

They were already full, but who could say no to vegan frozen yoghurt? Fíli and Kíli couldn’t. They each got one with four different toppings (which in Fíli’s case was chocolate, some more chocolate, gummi bears and sugar pearls, and in Kíli’s chocolate, almonds, walnuts, and dried cranberries). It was just as good as Fíli remembered it, maybe even better. The slightly sour taste balanced the sweetness, and the texture was just perfect. Soft, but not too soft; cold, but not too cold.

 

Afterwards, they were both too stuffed to sample any of the other culinary delights, but they managed to restock their supply of vegan chocolate. They also discovered two stalls selling fermented vegan cheese, and Fíli snatched the last vegan camembert.

 

Once they were finished shopping, they noticed that a demonstration by a vegan calisthenics group was about to begin. Fíli was not, in general, opposed to watching fit young men work out.  However, after all of the food he had just consumed, he was feeling sluggish -- especially next to Kíli, who he felt could have easily outdone any of the presenters. Of course, Kíli himself was very keen to watch, and once the group was finished, he wheedled a promise out of one very worn-out man for an interview for his research paper.

 

Back home, they took a nap on Kíli’s bed, too exhausted to do more. But for dinner, they had homemade bread with the vegan camembert. It didn’t taste like the camembert Fíli remembered, but was good nevertheless.

 

*   *   *

 

Fíli felt that maybe they shouldn’t spend Sunday together as well, as that might be overkill: they had seen each other nearly every day since they had started dating. And, as it turned out, this Sunday, Kíli had been invited to Eowyn and Eomer’s place, and Fíli still had some catching up to do with the organisation of Erebor Inc. It should have been a good opportunity for the two of them to have some time to themselves... but then Kíli had made his puppy eyes. Maybe, just maybe, Fíli could have resisted the eyes, but Kíli had also made a banana-hazelnut pudding pie to bring along. What man could resist that? (Any man not as fond of hazelnuts as Fíli, probably).

 

*   *   *

 

On Thursday evening, Fíli found Kíli unusually grumpy. His interview with Dwalin was apparently doomed. Twice he had cancelled, and now Kíli had just gotten an email from the restaurant they were going to meet at, stating that they would be closed until further notice due to an emergency. “Do you know how hard it is to find a free table on Fridays?” Kíli asked, pouting and crossing his arms. “I mean, in a restaurant with a table big enough to also get some work done?”

 

Fíli gave into the urge to put his arms around him, awkward as it was.

 

“Maybe a restaurant is not the best idea in the first place, darling. They’re so loud.”

 

Kíli sighed and freed his arms from between their bodies to put his hands lightly on Fíli’s hips.

“So what do you suggest?”

 

“Why not invite him for dinner at your place? He’s a big guy, he won’t be scared to come.”

 

Kíli, always happy to have an opportunity to show off his cooking skills, sent a message to Dwalin, and Dwalin accepted 4 minutes later. Kíli kissed Fíli’s cheek after he got the message.

 

“You have the best ideas.”

 

“No, I don’t.”

 

They bickered about that for several minutes like the two smitten idiots they were.

 

*

 

In any case, the next evening, Fíli found himself in Kíli’s kitchen once again, helping Kíli get ready for his dinner with Dwalin.

 

“I’m not sure what my purpose here is,” Fíli repeated as he took three plates out of the cupboard. “I’m not studying nutrition, and I’m not an athlete.”

 

“You’re here for support,” Kíli chided him. He was currently busy whipping coconut cream for the raspberry mousse. “He’s the most prominent person I’ve ever met, and he’s coming to my home!”

 

“And by making me look like an idiot, you will shine.”

 

“No!” Kíli put his bowl down and went to give Fíli a hug. “That’s not it at all.” He suddenly looked miserable. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to force you to be here if it’s just boring for you, or uncomfortable, but …”

 

“I’m good.” Fíli angled his head up to kiss Kíli’s jawline. “Don’t worry.”

 

“I’ll make it worth your while,” Kíli promised. His hands slid down to Fíli’s bottom and squeezed. Fíli wiggled out of his grasp.

 

“Not now!” he chided. “You want to make a good impression, don’t you?”

 

“So I do.” Kíli winked like the imp he was and turned around to finish his mousse.

 

*

 

Dinner was a fairly simple affair, by Kíli’s standards. He’d had classes that day, so he wasn’t able to spend as much time cooking the meal as he’d have liked. So he had prepared oven roasted new potatoes with rosemary, vegan tzatziki, breaded soy steaks, and a big plate of fresh vegetables (heirloom tomatoes in several colours, celery, spring onions and watercress). Not to mention the raspberry mousse for dessert, which Kíli claimed was one of the easiest desserts to make, short of buying one ready-made. (Fíli was sure he would mess up the agar if left to his devices, but didn’t say so.)

 

Still, Dwalin’s first word when he came through the door was, “This smells delicious.”

 

“Thank you!” Kíli was bouncing on the balls of his feet, more jittery than Fíli had ever seen him before. He was getting a bit jealous when he noticed the awe in his boyfriend’s face when Dwalin remarked that he had had a tough day training.

 

When they were sitting down to eat, Dwalin was polite enough to enquire where Fíli worked. When he mentioned Durin Inc., Dwalin grinned.

 

“My brother works there in HR. You’ve probably met him?”

 

Dwalin Fundin. He had wondered why that name had seemed so familiar.

 

“Balin Fundin? Balin Fundin is your **_brother_ **?”

 

Kíli’s reproachful glare told him he had been rude, but Fíli didn’t care. How could this hulk be in any way related to Balin, a man smaller than Fíli even? Dwalin just laughed fondly.

 

“Yes, he is. We were never much alike, but very fond of each other.”

 

“I … I’m sorry,” Fíli managed to apologize.

 

The rest of the dinner went smoothly after that. Before they had dessert, Kíli and Dwalin sat down for Kíli to interview the wrestler, while Fíli busied himself with the dishes. He excused himself once he had done that.

 

When he got a text from Kíli, he had just finished reviewing the previous year’s financial report (which had been truly riveting work).

 

*He’s gone now. Are you free? Can I come over?*

 

*Sure!*

 

Fíli very happily put the reports away and hurried to the door. He opened it just as Kíli opened his.

“Shouldn’t you transcribe all your notes first?” he asked once Kíli was inside. The brunet grinned and pulled Fíli close.

 

“I did promise to make your help worth your while, didn’t I?”

 

*

 

And Kíli did. Just as he always did. Fíli was still amazed at how compatible they were together in bed. Kíli still made him laugh just as often as he took his breath away. This time, he ended up squeaking like a tiny mouse, nearly causing Kíli to fall off the bed laughing.  Fíli was tempted to shove him off completely, but then Kíli stopped laughing and dragged Fíli closer, kissing him deeply.

 

*   *   *

 

Kíli decided to stay the night, and he was more than welcome. Fíli had started to miss Kíli during the rare nights they slept in their respective flats.

 

As he put his arm around Kíli’s waist, Fíli inhaled deeply. He didn’t know how he had been so lucky. He only worried that it couldn’t last - Kíli would find out how dull Fíli really was and leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so there are a LOT of notes about the food in this chapter …. 
> 
> The carrot salad with caraway seeds is from Joanne Stepaniak’s cookbook [The Vegan Deli](http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Deli-Joanne-Stepaniak/dp/1570671095). Basically, you steam carrots, mix them with oil and lemon juice and caraway seed and chill it for several hours. I love that cookbook - all the recipes are really really simple and delicious.
> 
> Spreads based on sunflower seeds are amazing - the German brand is Zwergenwiese (which means dwarf meadow <3 ). Too pricy for me to use everyday, but I do buy one once a month. Fíli is not quite as poor as me ;)
> 
> The fried vegetables with Tofu Kíli prepared were my dinner a couple of days ago (I also had chocolate for lunch) ;) So easy. Anyway, Kampot pepper is possibly the snobbiest ingredient I’ll use in this entire story. Kampot is an area in Cambodia and they grow this amazing pepper, which is seriously hard to find outside Cambodia! I have no idea if it is available around here, I got it as a present from family who went to Cambodia on holiday (people know I love to cook, so I get spices as souvenir quite often). Here’s some info: [official site](http://www.kampotpepper.biz/) [ site about different types of pepper, read comments from Pepper Passion](http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/07/taste-test-black-pepper-what-are-differences-in-varieties.html) and [another site about pepper](http://www.sirspice.com/pages/peppercorn-varieties)
> 
> The Vegan Street Fair was inspired by the Vegana in Zurich. I basically copied it for the purposes of this story. [This is the link to their instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/vegana.ch/) .  
> If you never had Kottu Roti or any Tamil food for that matter, you really missed out - it’s just the best thing ever! Kottu Roti is usually made with egg, but the vegan egg-free version is great! Here’s a link to the instagram of the people who offered it at the Vegana: [click](https://www.instagram.com/KottuRoti/)  
> I didn't eat it at the Vegana though, I have Tamil friends who always prepare it for me ... I looked for recipes online and it looks like most don't use curryleaves, but I know my friend does ... I think [this](http://www.chitrasfoodbook.com/2015/05/kothu-parotta-recipe-vegetarianeasy.html) comes closest but [this](http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess1/135.html) also looks good.  
> (I also ran out of ideas for translating geographical areas to Middle-Earth. So far Rhovanion is sort of Germany and Switzerland, Rohan is Ireland, Arnor is England, New Zealand and Australia, Dunland is probably going to end up being France, Angmar (in the absence of a witch-king in the history of the ME, is going to be Scandinavia, Gondor and South Gondor are Italy, Spain and Greece, Umbar is south and east Mediterranean ... if anyone has a suggestion for a Middle-Earth region that could work for South India or Sri Lanka, let me know. Same with Turkey, I don't want to lump it with Umbar.)
> 
> The banana-hazelnut pie Kíli makes is based on one suggested by [Khim_Azagal](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Khim_Azaghal/pseuds/Khim_Azaghal) for the story. The recipe she found is here: [click](http://minimalistbaker.com/banana-cream-pie-vegan-gf)  
> I was too lazy to whip cream when I tested it and I also had some hazelnut milk (pricy, but I indulge from time to time). So I substituted the almond milk with hazelnut milk to make the pudding and I didn’t mix it with whipped coconut cream, I just put it on the crust as is. My parents and me absolutely loved it. Next time I may make the crust with ground hazelnuts as well for extra-goodness. I might possibly also put a chocolate spread on the crust because hazelnuts and chocolate and banana are a divine combination. (I used palmoil free margerine instead of coconut oil for the crust - I am not too happy about the popularity of coconut oil)
> 
> Finally, the menu for Dwalin. The breaded soy steaks and Tzatziki are from a German cookbook [(La Veganista)](https://www.amazon.de/Veganista-Lust-auf-vegane-K%C3%BCche/dp/3833833106) (best tzatziki ever), the mousse is another German recipe, you can find here: [click](http://culinariaungaria.blogspot.ch/2014/05/luftig-leichte-erdbeermousse-100-vegan.html)
> 
> Agar is a gelling agent made from algae, it basically works like gelatin.
> 
> I think that is all - if you have any questions, tell me ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't forgotten this story ;)
> 
> Thank you again @Khafushun for betaing and editing! He cut some of the more boring stuff from this :D 
> 
> And a special thank you to straycrab for her help with this chapter! You'll find that most of the food in this chapter is Japanese ... Straycrab helped me come up with an alternative name. Mizuho is actually an old name for Japan. To quote from wikipedia: "Mizuho (瑞穂) refers to ears of grain, e.g. 瑞穂国 Mizuho-no-kuni "Country of Lush Ears (of Rice)."." ... that seemed to be an appropriate country name for a story about food :) She also helped with the food, see endnotes ...

After weeks of suffering through constant drizzle, the sun had decided to take pity on Erebor and its inhabitants. Fíli was still ridiculously busy. Not only because of his workload, but also because he had forgotten so many things he had learnt at university about management. Therefore, he found himself spending most of his evenings buried in his old books.

Kíli was also busy writing the paper on vegan nutrition for athletes, that he needed to hand in later that month and that he was so passionate about, which meant there were many evenings they spent at their own flats, though they texted each other frequently and always had dinner together. If Kíli cooked, then Fíli always helped him, unless he came home from work too late -- which meant that Fili had now become quite good at chopping onions. Kíli always kissed his tears away, if an onion was especially pungent (which only gave Fili more of an incentive to do all of Kili’s onion chopping). 

Most nights, Fíli would come over to Kíli’s flat to spend the night. Both were too exhausted to do more than sleep most nights, but it was still so comforting to hear Kíli’s steady breath and feel the heat of his body at night. If his new responsibilities wouldn’t stress him out so much, Fíli would consider his life to be quite perfect.

***

“Sunday is going to be hot,” Kíli announced one Friday evening, as he came back from the kitchen, after he had finished putting their plates away. Fíli was on the couch, idly browsing through the latest news on his phone. “The first day of summer, they said!”

Kíli plopped down next to Fíli and put his arm around him. Fíli turned his head and nuzzled his face in Kíli’s shoulder, not much interested in what Kíli had to say and much more interested in cuddling.

“Hmm?”

Kíli poked him. “Don’t ‘hm’ me! Where do you want to go? It’s going to be packed by the lake, but I know this little place near the forest river, it’s only like 20 minutes by car and …”

“We don’t have a car,” Fíli pointed out, lifting his face away from Kíli’s oh-so-inviting shoulder.

“Right.” Kíli deflated a tiny bit. “I guess you can’t ask your uncle if he’d lend you his …?”

That made Fíli sit up again and pull a face. “No way.”

“Sorry.” Kíli pulled him closer again. “We just have ask somebody to come along who has a car!”

“Do you know anybody?”

Kili smiled and pressed a kiss against Fili’s temple. “I think I just might.”

*

In the end, Kíli had called Ori, who wheedled his older brother, Nori, until Nori relented and decided that yes, going to the river on Sunday was a great idea and that he would drive them all in exchange for food (even if it was vegan). Fíli went into town to buy a picnic basket and a decent blanket. Kíli also asked him to get some chairs, “if they’re cheap.” Fíli argued that part of the fun was sitting on the ground. But of course, when he found reasonably priced folding chairs, he bought four of them. It was a bother to take them back home on the bus, but he would do anything to make Kíli happy.

*

The day of their excursion, Kíli baked a beautiful bread filled with wild garlic pesto that he called a “pesto flower” because of its shape: it was round but Kíli had cut the circle in sixteen strips (leaving a small circle in the middle) and always twisted two together, so it looked like a flower with 8 petals. However it was not, despite Kíli’s claims, the best food to take to a picnic. By the time they had arrived at the river bank, one “petal” had already broken off. But it was delicious all the same. Along with the bread, Kíli served green salad (shunned by both Ori and Nori), a salad of spiralized carrots with cashew sauce (which _did_ tempt the sceptical brothers), falafels with a tahini sauce, and a pasta salad with dried tomatoes. They washed it down with copious amounts of homemade ice tea.

After they had eaten, Kíli insisted on placing their chairs right into the shallow river. Fíli would have never thought of it himself, but once he had moved his chair and let his feet dangle in the cold water, he had to admit that it was a brilliant idea. The coolness radiating from the water balanced the heat from the sun. Relaxing right on the river, next to Kíli, Fíli actually forgot all about Erebor Inc. Instead, it was just a brilliant afternoon with the man he loved.

*

Once they were back in the car, on their way back to Erebor, Kíli checked his phone. Fíli was relaxing next to him; they had volunteered to take the backseat, and he was resting his hand lightly on Kíli’s thigh while he leaned back and enjoyed the ride. He was pulled out of his relaxed mode when he felt Kíli’s powerful thigh muscles tighten. He opened his eyes and turned to Kíli, who was staring at his phone as if it were a particularly venomous snake.

When Fíli tightened his grip on Kíli’s leg, Kíli turned to him and silently shook his head.

*

As soon as they were home, Kíli put his arms around Fíli from behind, just as Fíli was putting a bowl with the leftover pasta salad into the fridge.

“I got a text from my father,” he explained.

“Your father?” Fíli kept his voice as neutral as possible. Kíli had never spoken much about his father, but his family had always seemed like a touchy subject. Kíli’s flat was mainly sprinkled with pictures of friends, though there was one picture of Kíli’s mother in his bedroom. Fíli knew that she had died when Kíli was four years old. His usually open boyfriend had looked so intense but forbidding when he had told Fíli, that Fíli had not dared to ask further questions. And that look Kíli had given his phone … 

Kíli seemed to sense that Fíli had unasked questions. “We don’t get along, my father and me.” He sighed and released Fíli. “Let’s sit down … I guess you deserve an explanation about that, because … well … he might come here.”

“Oh.”

Once they were settled on the couch, with a hand width distance between them, Kíli looked at the switched off TV set. “My father’s actually from Erebor, I don’t know if I ever told you? To be honest, I actually wanted to study in Helm’s Deep, but my dad was just so determined that I get to know his own home, he sort of threatened to not support me at all if I didn’t go to school he wanted. Well, in the end I caved in, even though I never really wanted to come here. Of course, it hasn’t been all bad,” Kili added quickly. “I mean, I met you here, and Tauriel of course …” He laughed suddenly. “I guess I’m just stubborn, you know? Just like dad, really. I don’t want to admit to him that I’m actually happy I went here.”

At that, Kili turned away again and bit his lip. “Of course, there’s more to it than just that. I guess I’ll just come out and say it.” Kíli took a deep breath. “My dad’s a homophobe. You know. One of those people who thinks homosexuality is fine if it occurs in other families … I told him I was bi just before I left for Erebor and he essentially said that bi isn’t a true orientation, that it is just a silly modern conceit and that … that my pretend interest in men is just a phase, just a form of rebellion against him. So… we didn’t part on very good terms.”

Fíli was silent for a moment. Only when Kíli’s hand bumped against his leg, almost hesitantly, he took Kíli hand and squeezed it.

“I’m sorry your father is so … so narrow minded. Really. I was lucky, Thorin fought the battle before me in my family … but I understand why you’d want to let him come here. It’s just been you and him for a long time, hasn’t it?”

“That’s not it,” Kíli sighed. “You know, it used to be that I only went down there every holiday to avoid trouble with his financial support … so I only saw him when it couldn’t be avoided. But, now … I think I actually _want_ him to come here and see that I’m happy with a man.” Kili gave Fili a serious look. “Do you want to meet him? I can tell him to stay at a hotel, so you never have to meet him, if you don’t want to …”

“You do what you think is best,” Fíli said, more firmly than he felt. It was an attractive prospect, to just avoid Kíli homophobic father, but at the same time, Fíli could not even imagine not supporting Kíli, no matter how difficult it might be.

“Thank you.” Kíli disentangled their hands, but only to put his arm around Fíli’s waist to pull him closer.

***

Luckily Kíli was soon distracted from the impending visit. One of the other students in his nutrition class, Miaka, had started to take an interest in vegan food. It was nearly term break now, and they all had done little presentations on their papers. Kíli had spoken so passionately about being a vegan, that Miaka had become curious. Fíli was a tiny bit jealous when Kíli came home that day and was so enthusiastic about Miaka and talking to her about vegan food and vegan nutrition. Contrary to Fíli, however, Miaka was actually quite a good cook. She was from Mizuho, a country where fish was a part of virtually everything they ate. The only food from there that Fíli and Kíli were aware of was sushi, instant ramen, and the random soba noodles and miso in fancy restaurants. After Miaka brought lunch for Kíli for the first time, however, Kíli immediately got hold of a vegan cookbook with recipes for Mizuhon food.

*

Much of it was easy enough for Fíli to cook easily by himself. Kíli already had an old rice cooker, but Fíli bought a second one, so that he could prepare zosui (a kind of pilaf) one evening when Kíli came home after a late shift. It simply involved putting rice, dashi, sake, soy sauce, mushrooms, carrots (which he had bought already cut into matchsticks) and frozen peas in the rice cooker and pressing the “cook” button. Kíli declared that it was the best thing he had ever eaten, particularly because his boyfriend had prepared it for him. Two days later Fíli produced an oyster mushroom zosui with the same method. It was nice to have something easy but delicious at hand for those days when Kíli came home late. 

***

At this point in their relationship, they spent nearly every evening together. Fíli worried occasionally if they weren’t moving too fast. But it would also have felt weird not to spend a lot of time together, considering they were neighbours. They shared a bed for several nights a week, only ever just changing that habit because both felt they must. Or, if Fíli was honest with himself, it was Fíli who always insisted that they also needed some time apart. Kíli always made sad puppy eyes. The only times they ever argued was when Fíli insisted that they sleep in their own beds for a change.

*

One evening, Kíli was a bit drunk and he accused Fíli of trying to distance himself, implying that Fíli didn’t like Kíli as much as Kíli liked him.

Kili was taken aback by the flare in Fíli’s temper that he had hitherto not been privileged to witness. Fíli all but shouted that Kíli was spouting nonsense and needed to sober up. Kíli slunk back to his flat. They both didn’t sleep well and in the morning, Kíli stood at Fíli’s door apologising for what he had said.

“But when my father comes, I can sleep in your bed, right? So he can stay in mine? I can sleep on the couch but …”

“Of course.” Fíli pulled Kíli inside and gave him a kiss. “I’m sorry, too. It’s not that I don’t want to spend every night with you… I … Well, actually I’ve fallen in love with you so fast, I … I just want to make sure that we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”

Kíli put his arms around Fíli and buried his face in Fíli’s locks. He mumbled something unintelligible into Fíli’s hair. Fíli’s own head was forced against Kíli’s chest by the gesture, and, as lovely as Kíli’s chest was, he had to push his boyfriend away for air.

“What did you say?” he asked, smiling up into Kíli’s large brown eyes. Kíli beamed.

“I said I love you too, and I don’t see the point of following any sort of rules that say we need to take it slowly. That first night - remember you said you didn’t want to follow any first date rules?”

“I do.” Fíli smirked, playing with a strand of Kíli’s unruly hair. “But …”

“But we have no time to discuss that now anyway,” Kíli cut him off. “I will respect your wishes for privacy, of course, but please don’t keep me at bay because you feel you have to. Just … well …”

Fíli nodded and gave Kíli another quick kiss. Unfortunately, he was right. They didn’t have time to discuss this. He had to get to work. And Kíli’s father had announced himself for the coming Saturday and intended to stay for 2 weeks. Erebor was his home. If they managed to share a bed for two weeks in a row, it would really be odd to stop … and they still had two different flats, he consoled himself.

***

“I am so glad you’re not the jealous type of boyfriend,” Kíli declared that night, placing an open-mouthed kiss behind Fíli’s ear. Fíli shoved him away.

“Why would I be jealous?”

Kíli shrugged. “I’ve been talking about Miaka the entire evening. Some people would mind.”

“I just like to hear you talking about food.” Fíli put his arm around the taller man, which was always a bit awkward. “And I am grateful to your new friend for introducing us to such great food.”

Of course, he _had_ initially been a bit jealous of Miaka. He had met Kíli in virtually the same way. True, he had already been vegan, but Kíli had been so enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge with Fíli, too. But it was soon obvious that Miaka was nothing but a friend.

“You like me talking about food?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Fíli turned to kiss Kíli’s ear. “Now, what did you say that Miaka did with hummus?”

“She put it in onigiri!”

“But aren’t they riceballs?”

“Yes! Exactly! She brought some to class yesterday, they were awesome!!!”

Fíli was sceptical, but two days later, Fíli found onigiri in the lunchbox Kíli had packed for him. Heart-shaped onigiri filled with hummus and diced pepper. He had to admit that he liked this version much better than the one with _ume_. Pretty pink plums should not be that sour. 

Arwen saw the heart-shaped rice in his lunchbox and grinned. Now that they were working together closely, they had developed a good relationship, so he offered her one. When he told her what it was, he enjoyed watching her struggle. “Don’t you smirk at me,” Arwen chided. She had been brought up to be very polite, and she could not make herself give the onigiri back once she accepted it. The little crease between her brows smoothed once she’d bitten into it. Another convert to the magic of hummus onigiri.

*

A few days after that, Fíli came home to find Kili’s kitchen overflowing with packages covered in a script he couldn’t read. Apparently Kíli and Miaka had raided the local Mizuhon shop. In addition, a package from Miaka’s relatives had arrived that included fresh udon noodles, which the shops in Erebor didn’t carry. In the local shop, they had bought matcha, matcha soba, udon noodles, _kouya-dofu_ , and all the ingredients needed for making mochi. Kíli practically jumped through his flat in excitement, while Fíli examined the food more closely.

“‘Kouya-dofu’? Dried tofu? What …”

“Isn’t that a neat idea?” Kíli enthused. “So handy to always have tofu at hand! Of course, Miaka said it has a different consistency, but apparently it soaks up flavour a lot better than regular tofu. I can’t wait to experiment with it!”

“Right. And who puts green tea in noodles?” Fíli held up another package.

“Stop being a spoilsport.” Kíli bent down to peck his pursed lips. “You’re always sceptical but then you just love new food!”

“Not always,” Fíli protested. “Remember when you thought it would be a neat idea to put sugar in the salad dressing?”

“Well …” Kíli had the decency to look slightly guilty. “Look, they put sugar in their salad dressing in Angmar, so I just veganized a recipe for buttermilk salad dressing …”

“Sugar. In salad dressing.” Fíli repeated. “Not a dash of sugar, to enhance the flavour. Stop sniggering, you taught me that. But you had to put a whole spoonful of sugar in!”

“I hoped maybe this would make salad Ori compatible? There are plenty of people who like it, there are tons of recipes online.”

“But I didn’t.” Fíli crossed his arms feeling smug. “I told you I wouldn’t like it and I didn’t.”

“Right. Be a child.” Kíli pulled at a strand of Fíli’s hair. “But give the matcha soba a chance, okay?”

“Okay, okay …” Fíli was really much more interested in cuddles and kisses than any food at this point, anyway.

***

Before they were adventurous enough to try the matcha soba, they decided to make good use of the fresh udon. It was amazing how appetizing fresh noodles looked, considering they were really just a dough out of flour and water cut into stripes. Kíli was all for trying to make the noodles himself as well the next time, but for the moment they contented themselves with making kitsune-udon, which consisted of udon and fried tofu in a savory broth. It was ridiculously easy, and beyond delicious. 

But Fíli’s favourite were the cold noodles they had for lunch on Saturday, just before Kíli’s father was set to arrive. It was unbearably hot in Erebor that day, and Miaka had recommended cold noodles. So, they used the rest of the fresh udon to make Zaru Udon. The noodles were cold and delightfully slippery, and the sauce they had prepared to dip the noodles in dripped down their chins and caught in their stubble. They were laughing and still licking at each other’s chins, when the doorbell rang. Kíli jumped up, swearing.

“Shit, that’s my father. I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to spring him on you like this, but …”

“It’s fine,” Fíli soothed him. “Look through the spyhole, if the neighbours for once closed the door downstairs, he’s still down there, and I can slip into my flat if you don’t want him to see me now.”

“It’s not that,” Kíli protested. “I am not ashamed or …”

“I know, don’t worry.”

The doorbell rang again. Kíli pressed the intercom.

“Hello?”

“Kíli? It’s me, Dad! Let me up!”

“Sure!”

Kíli pressed the buzzer and Fíli slipped out of the door and into his own flat.

*

Fíli really understood. It did feel a bit like he was kicked out, but he knew that was silly. Kíli had a strained relationship with his father for good reasons, and Fíli’s presence would not have been helpful. Still, it was only human to stand on tiptoes behind his door, watching through the spyhole. He couldn’t make out much, but the man looked like a slightly broader version of Kíli. He carried a light suitcase. The spyhole didn’t allow him to see him when he was in front of Kíli’s door, but what he could hear reminded him very much of his own interactions with Thorin.

***

Kíli rang his doorbell in the late afternoon. He shuffled with his feet and looked at Fíli with his impossibly big eyes.

“So, em … do you want to come over and help me with the food?”

“Sure.” Fíli smiled. “So … is everything all right?”

Kíli glanced towards his own door, which was closed. Still, he dropped his voice to a whisper. “I think so? He … he actually asked if he could meet you, I told him I’ve got a boyfriend and I said you were next door … so he said why don’t I bring you over now? I can’t promise anything, but …”

Fíli smiled and quickly put his hand on Kíli’s shoulder to squeeze it reassuringly. “Let’s not keep him waiting then.”

He sincerely hoped that Kíli couldn’t pick up on how nervous he was. He had never had a boyfriend, therefore he had never had to meet his boyfriend’s parents. His usual way of dealing with homophobes these days was to ignore them. The good thing about working at Erebor Inc. was that everybody knew that Thorin, the owner of the company, was gay, so he never did encounter it at work. But he could hardly ignore his boyfriend’s father, as long as Kíli wanted or needed to keep the man in his life.

*

Fíli was literally pushed into the living room by Kíli, where his father was awkwardly standing next to the book shelf.

“Dad, this is Fíli.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Frerin looked more uncertain than pleased, though. He held out his hand. “I am Frerin, Kíli’s dad.”

Fíli shook his hand politely. “Pleasure to meet you, too.”

“Now that this is over …” Kíli put his hand on Fíli’s back and pushed him toward the kitchen, “you’ve got to help me cook. Make yourself comfortable, Dad.”

Fíli had never seen Kíli so tense, but he didn’t comment. Instead he chopped the onion and the carrot that Kíli handed him. It took them over 45 minutes to cook, and Fíli started to feel uncomfortable. This just seemed slightly rude towards Kíli’s dad. Frerin appeared once in the doorframe, asking if he could help, but was shooed out by his son, who advised him to check what was on TV.

*

When they finally brought out the plated food to the living room, Frerin looked at his plate. “So … what is this?”

“Beets with a hazelnut crust, served with raspberry dressing. It will be followed by potato patties with chicory and pear. We’ll have mochi for dessert, they’re a Mizuhon sweet.”

“I get being vegan,” Frerin complained. “But can’t you make … normal food? Spaghetti? Mashed potatoes with gravy? Why does it have to be so … different?”

Kíli rolled his eyes. “Just try it, Dad.”

Fíli smiled. He suspected that Kíli had picked something fancy on purpose, but he felt that he should try to smooth things over. “Many vegans eat spaghetti, pizza and stuff … I couldn’t even cook before I met Kíli.”

It was the first time that Frerin actually genuinely smiled. “I'm a bad cook myself … I really don’t know where Kíli gets it from, even his mum only ever liked baking.”

While they were having dinner, it was obvious that Frerin was not quite won over by the elaborate food, but he admitted that it tasted “alright.” And he actually liked the mochi with anko (until Kíli told him that anko was a sweet bean paste, at least).

*

Fíli went to grab some vegan ale from his own flat. Beer often helped when things were awkward. And indeed, Frerin gladly took a bottle.

“So …” Frerin was clearly still uncomfortable talking to Kíli’s boyfriend, but he was making a valiant effort. “What do you do for a living?”

“I am working for the design department of Erebor, Inc.” Fíli had intended to leave it at that, but Kíli was oblivious to his clues and added:

“Actually, Fíli is the heir of Erebor Inc, Dad. So stop badgering him.”

Fíli flushed. He was very confident in his abilities as a designer, and liked to talk about that. But his upbringing had been very middle-class, not that of an "heir" to one of the most profitable companies in the area. While his father and his mother both had fairly decent wages, they had never been rich. Frerin would get entirely the wrong impression. And Frerin did look at him with a slight frown.

“Your uncle is Thorin Durin?”

This wasn’t the question Fíli had expected.

“Um … yes. He is.” He could just about refrain himself from asking why, but he needn’t have bothered. Kíli cocked his head and asked his father: “Why do you ask, Dad?” Sometimes Fíli wondered if Kíli had any filters. Frerin fidgeted a bit in his chair, and looked down at the floor.

“He was my best friend when we were younger.”

“Ah …”

“I had hoped to meet up with him while I was here. We had an … unfortunate fight many years ago, but it is hard to get a hold of such an important person, I am not sure he would even get my email …”

“I can give him your email address, if you’d like me to,” Fíli said before thinking. He could only hope that whatever they fought about, Thorin was for once in his life willing to forget an insult. At the moment, he got on well enough with Thorin, who was pleased with his work. But he also wanted to help Kíli’s dad if he could.

“I’d appreciate it.” Frerin looked like he was about to say something else, but didn’t. Instead he shifted on the couch to take his wallet out of his pocket and handed Kíli a business card. Kíli fetched a pen and insisted that his father write a quick message. Shortly after that, Kíli declared that he was dead beat, and that his father could just ring the bell to Fíli’s flat if he needed anything.

Once they had closed the door behind them, Kíli engulfed Fíli in a hug.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No.” Fíli smiled and pecked Kíli’s jaw. “He’s making an effort.”

“He is. I’d have kicked him out if he’d been rude to you.”

“You told him that, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Kíli looked a bit sheepish. “But he was so awkward … and I didn’t want him to make you uncomfortable, it wouldn’t have been fair.”

Fíli just shook his head. Maybe Frerin’s awkwardness had been partly motivated by the feeling that he was under the close observation of his son and not so much by homophobia. To Fíli, it seemed that Frerin was trying to apologize to Kíli, but he should have known that his son was too straight-forward to understand anything but an outright, verbal apology. Fili then let the thought go, deciding that further speculation would be useless. Only time would tell if his estimation of Frerin was correct.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes about the food ....  
> I think I didn't manage to describe the pesto bread quite well ... my first attempt only confused Khafushun, so I tried to be a bit more explicit. Just google "pesto flower bread" for an illustration :) It's really very easy to make and very impressive!  
> The rest of the picnic food is just stuff I generally make without a recipe ... (I prefer to make cashew sauce with cashew butter instead of soaked cashew nuts which you can find quite often in recipes ... with the cashew butter it is smoother, maybe it's no difference if you've got a good food processor ;) )
> 
> Japanese food is unfortunately mostly not even vegetarian, because there is fish in virtually everything. But if you veganize the recipes, they are so delicious! "Dashi", the Japanese broth, is usually made with bonito flakes, but you can use konbu (a seaweed) or shiitake mushrooms and it's just as good!
> 
> Straycrab actually sent me all the Japanese food described in this chapter! (THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN) The fresh udon were SOO SOO good! I could have eaten them all in one go.  
> Fun fact about Udon that I stumbled over doing research for this chapter: The wheat for Udon is actually mostly grown in Australia! In West Australia wheat is the only crop yielding good enough harvests for decent profits and they bred a special variety of wheat just for the Japanese Udon market. ([Link1](http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/premium-udon-noodle-market-for-wa-wheat-growers/1415066.aspx) [Link2](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-10/japanese-first-lady-taste-tests-wa-udon-needles/5587904)) The reason the Australians could get into the market was that after the Second World War, the US obliged Japan to buy wheat from the US until the 1960s, so the local wheat production more or less stopped. ([Link](http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/topics/japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-20-domestic-flour))
> 
> Anyway ... matcha soba is actually delicious, Fíli is just fussy. All the recipes I described are from ["Japanese Cooking, Contemporary and Tradition. Simple, Delicious and Vegan"](https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cooking-Contemporary-Traditional-Delicious/dp/1570670722) by one of my favourite vegan cookbook authors, Miyoko Nishimoto Skinner. She doesn't promise too much in the title ;) These days she is mainly known for her vegan cheese recipes. Unfortunately, none of her Japanese recipes is online, but the two "Zosui" Fíli makes can be found on the "look inside" feature on amazon. 
> 
> The Onigiri with Hummus were Straycrab's idea ... I would NEVER have considered putting hummus in Onigiri, she had no such qualms. I tried it and both my mother and me stuffed ourselves on them, so delicious!
> 
> The fancy food Kíli made to annoy his father is from Josita Hartanto, a German author. They're from her cookbook: [Vegan Genial](https://www.amazon.de/vegan-genial-aufregend-anders-kochen/dp/3942491214/) I personally love more creative food ;) - those two recipes used to be online, but they are not anymore, sorry!
> 
> Let me know if you have any questions ;)


	6. Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frerin's arrival shakes up the boys' lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as always, thank you to Khafushun for being the best betareader/editor ever!

Fíli met Kíli during his lunch break; Kíli was planning to go shopping with his father later that afternoon, since Frerin had a car, and he wanted Fíli’s opinion on what they should plan to cook that week. So, they met at the university’s vegetarian cafeteria, and ordered the gnocchi with tomato sauce and a vegan parmesan made from almonds. Unimaginative, perhaps, but the vegetable kebabs looked very dry.

There was also some vegan cake, and of course, Fíli had to get some. He was always in favour of cake, so much so that Kíli had promised to teach him how to make a really easy vegan cake “that even _you_ can’t mess up,” just soon as his father was gone.

Kíli had barely taken two bites of his gnocchi when he pulled out his tablet and opened his notes.

“So you said you liked burgers, right? I’m wondering if we should have lemongrass tofu banh mi burgers with sriracha aioli for dinner tonight, or yam veggie burgers with cilantro lime tahini sauce.”

Fíli stared until Kíli poked him with his fork.

“What do you think?”

“I can’t even remember all of that,” Fíli sighed. “Can’t we do something a bit more ordinary? What _is_ a tofu banh mi burger, anyway?”

“Now you sound like my father.”

That was an insult, and Fíli bristled. “And _you_ just want to piss him off.”

“I don’t!” They glared at each other, until Kíli rolled his eyes. “All right, all right. Plain, generic burgers then? Chickpeas and gluten? I’m allowed to make them myself, right?”

“Sure, that sounds much better. Or how about pasta?”

“Pasta sounds great! I saw a recipe recently that called for putting Srivijayan spices into the tomato sauce! I could get some lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves, and galangal and … what?”

“You’re just taking the piss now.”

“I’m not,” Kíli huffed, and crossed his arms.

“Why can’t you just keep it simple while your father’s here?”

“Why the fuck should I?” Kíli glared, and Fíli automatically pushed his chair backwards. It was rare for them to argue, but now Kíli curled his hand around his glass as if he wanted to break it. “I have to put up with him being here, and indulging in my bloody hobby helps me put up with him, all right?!”

Fíli put up his hands. “All right. So what else have you got?”

“Tomato salad with bananas …” Kíli burst out laughing, his mood restored. “It’s actually good, but I was just having you on, I know you’re not brave enough to try that.”

“Yeah, I’m _normal,”_ Fíli grumbled, feeling slightly insulted. Kíli reached over and briefly covered his hand with his own.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit on edge, I didn’t mean to insult you. I have to spend the entire afternoon with my father today, and I’m not too sure I can handle it.”

In the end, they came up with a menu for the week that Fíli felt was a good compromise. It included vegan burgers, goulash (with or without sauerkraut, depending on Frerin), red peppers stuffed with millet and dates, tarte flambe, and the pasta with lemongrass-galangal tomato sauce that Kíli had insisted on.

 

*

After that lunch, Fíli was determined to approach Thorin. Frerin wouldn’t stay long; one to two weeks, he had said. That didn’t leave Fíli with much time to figure out how to mention Frerin to Thorin. Nobody had ever accused Fíli of being stupid; he had a strong suspicion why Thorin and Frerin were not on speaking terms, so he had decided to make sure Thorin would be okay if Fíli gave the man his email address.

In the afternoon he met up with Thorin and Bilbo to go over some figures again. Fíli knew that it was not actually necessary, in his current position, to meet the president of the company quite so many times. At least Bilbo always provided something sweet and homemade. Today he had brought seed cake, which apparently was Thorin’s favourite.

Fíli did his best to keep it business related. Thorin did drop some hints about furthering his career, and outlined ideas of further training. It wasn’t that Fíli wasn’t fully aware that he needed to do that. But a serious discussion with Thorin on the topic was likely to become personal, and he didn’t know how to deal with that. He had been close to his uncle as a child, but ever since Thorin had officially made him his heir, their relationship had cooled.

It was ridiculous, and as he had told Kíli right at the beginning, he knew he was an overly privileged brat. Here he was, heir to the most prosperous company in Erebor, thanks to some sort of sentiment of his uncle. And Fíli was too afraid of disappointing Thorin to do anything that would make Thorin proud.

He was so absorbed with analysing himself that he wasn’t paying much attention to what Thorin was actually saying in the meeting. He wasn’t too concerned, though: Bilbo would send him the summary later anyway.

They were just wrapping up, when Fíli saw his opportunity. Bilbo had just been talking about catering for a small retirement party at the company, and kindly asked Fíli if he had been back to brunch with his nice young friend.

“No, but we may go soon with his father.”

“Oh, how nice.” Bilbo smiled.

“Is that the vegan brunch you’ve been telling me about, Bilbo? Weren’t we going to go at some point?” Thorin looked over at Fili. “Maybe we can all go together sometime.”

Fíli blinked. Had Thorin just suggested that they meet outside of work?

“Well, um, that would be nice, but … Actually, you know Kíli’s father, Thorin.”

“I do?” Thorin was still smiling.

“His name is Frerin Archer.”

The reaction was instantaneous. Thorin brows drew together and he barked: “FRERIN?”

“Yes.” Fíli winced. He had never seen so much emotion on Thorin’s face. “He said …”

“He said he knows me.” Thorin took a harsh breath.

“He said he had hoped to see you while he was here in town.”

“You may tell him that I have no such desire. Are we finished here?”

Bilbo confirmed that they were, and Thorin stalked back to his own office. Bilbo gave him a small apologetic smile, but Fíli shrugged it off. He had expected something like that.

 

*

 

Fíli had never been easily discouraged. There was obviously a lot of history there; something Thorin hadn’t dealt with well. While he couldn’t force his uncle to do anything he didn’t want to do, he had thought that maybe it would do Thorin some good to talk to Frerin.

So, he called his mother on his way home from work. That should have been his first step for obtaining more information on how to handle the situation, anyway.

The bus was not usually his favourite place to have a private conversation, but he also didn’t want to have this talk at home, where Kíli and Frerin might overhear. Luckily, for once he had actually found a seat near the back of the bus.

His mother answered after the first ring, and just after he said hello, he dove right into the issue at hand. He only had 20 minutes until he was home, after all.

“So, I just met Kíli’s father … It turns out that you might actually know him.”

“I do? How delightful. It’s a small world, isn’t it?”

“His name is Frerin Archer.”

He waited for her to reply, but there was no response.

“Mum? Are you still there?”

He pressed the phone closer to his ear. The background noise of a screaming toddler and the bus engine didn’t help.

“Yes. I’m sorry, darling. Frerin Archer, you said?”

He barely recognized his mother’s voice.

“That’s right. Thorin said he didn’t want to speak to him.”

“That’s not surprising.”

Fíli looked around. Really, not the right place for this conversation.

“Hang on, mum, I’ll just get off the bus …”

He got off at the next stop; there was a shortcut through a park from there. 

“Right … so I met Frerin yesterday, and he said he knows Thorin, but that they had a fight … And judging by Thorin’s reaction, I think I know why.”

“His reaction when he found out that Thorin was gay was disgusting.”

“I guessed as much … Kíli said that his father was biphobic and homophobic. He was nice enough to me, though.”

Dis was silent again for a moment.

“But he knows your Kíli’s boyfriend? He doesn’t think you’re just his neighbour and friend?”

“Kíli introduced me as his boyfriend, yes.”

“That …. I need to think for a moment.”

Fíli waited patiently, evading children running through the park and pausing to pat a neighbour’s dog. It seemed like an eternity before his mother spoke again.

“All right, I’ve decided. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Fíli stopped walking. He couldn’t walk and process that statement at the same time. “Excuse me? Why in the _world_ would you be coming here?!”

For a moment, he didn’t think his mother would answer, and when she did, her tone had lost some of that steely determination. “We’ve never talked about Frerin, so you wouldn’t know … Frerin meant a lot to both Thorin and me. I feel I need to come. I want to see him. And of course, I’d love to meet Kíli, too.”

“All right … it’s just that, I’ve only got the couch to offer … normally I would sleep there, but with Frerin in Kíli’s bed, he sleeps in mine and …”

“Don’t worry, if Thorin doesn’t have a room for me, the couch is fine, darling. I’ve got to look for that flight now, I’ll text you later with the time and date!”

 

***

When Fíli came home, Kíli was already done cooking. They had the penne with tomato sauce, galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves that evening, and both Fíli and Frerin actually liked it. Kíli had only put one chili in it, so it wasn’t too spicy, and the citrusy taste of the lemongrass and the kaffir lime leaves went well with the tomatoes. 

Kíli was almost unbearably smug when he pointed out that they finished everything, despite their initial scepticism. 

Of course, there was the moment when Frerin bit on a piece of galangal -- the shocked expression on his face had been hilarious. But Fíli did not believe that Kíli had forgotten to take all the pieces out, nor did he think that that particular piece had been on Frerin’s plate by accident.

 

Dis texted Fíli just after they had finished dinner to let him now that she would be there in two days’ time. He didn’t feel it was the right moment to talk about that though. Frerin didn’t ask about Thorin, and Fíli didn’t want to admit that Thorin had brushed him off. But they had kept up a conversation throughout dinner, with Frerin talking about Erebor when he had been young. 

When Kíli said that dinner the next day would be a bit late because he had to be at work longer, Fíli asked if Frerin wanted to meet up in town. The man agreed with evident relief. Kíli had not exactly done his best to relieve his workload during the time his father was there, and Fíli imagined that Frerin was a bit bored - although, on the other hand, the man had just decided to come without arranging the date with Kíli first, so what could he have expected? In some ways, Kíli’s father was a mystery.

 

*

 

When they were in bed, Kíli began to play with Fíli’s hair.

“You don’t have to take care of my father, you know. He’s an adult.”

Fíli pushed his head against Kíli’s hands; he loved the attention to his hair.

“Meeting him for coffee in town is hardly taking care of him. But he must be a bit bored, and I’d like to get to know him better. He’s your father, after all!”

That made Kíli stop his gentle massage.

“And he’s a homophobe! You’re gay! I don’t understand how you can be on my dad’s side!”

“I’m not on his side if he really _is_ still a raging homophobe.” Fíli sighed. “I just believe that everybody deserves a chance to change their opinion, you know?”

“He hasn’t SAID anything about changing his opinion.”

“No, but he insisted on visiting you. He wanted to meet me. He wants to get in touch with Thorin... Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

“He realised that being an arse makes him lonely?”

“Or being lonely made him realise that he was wrong?”

Kíli chuckled, but the usual cheer was lacking. “Aren’t I supposed to be the optimistic one around here?”

“Hey, I can be optimistic too.” Fíli slung his arm around Kíli and pulled him even closer. “I know he hurt you. I understand your suspicion, I really do. I’m just trying to see him without prejudice.”

“I knew there was a reason I loved you.” He kissed Fíli’s nose and curled himself around Fíli. Fíli rubbed his back soothingly before he spoke again.

“My mother is coming in two days, by the way.”

Angling his head uncomfortably, Kíli looked up. “Well, that’s nice. Better her than my father, anyway.”

“She’s coming to meet your father, actually … Well and you, I think. She also said she’d like to meet you.”

“I really want to meet her.”

Sometimes it was hard for Fíli to remember that he had only known his boyfriend for a couple of months. It seemed like so much longer sometimes. And, although he really wanted his mother to meet Kíli, and he was glad that he had met Kíli’s father, he didn’t like the promise of drama that this brought.

They were silent for a while, Kíli occupying himself with drawing little circles on Fíli’s chest.

“So your mother was in no hurry to fly over to meet me, or see you, _or_ her brother… but the moment my father is here, she hurries over?”

“Yes.” Fíli caught Kíli’s hand. “It really doesn’t mean she’s not interested in meeting you. She’s just busy, normally, and I guess … she also wanted to wait for an invitation.”

“But not now that my father is here.”

“No.”

“Hmm …” Silence fell again, then Kíli began to chuckle. “You know what this would mean in a soap opera, right?”

“No? My mother is not going to hate you, if that’s what you mean.”

“It would mean that your mother and my father had an affair and that you’re actually my brother, making our love forbidden.”

Fíli chuckled and pinched Kíli’s bottom. “What kind of crap do you watch? I take after my father, so I seriously doubt that he’s not my real dad.”

“Sorry.” Kíli propped himself up on Fíli’s shoulders. “I didn’t mean to insult your mother or the memory of your father … Bad joke, sorry.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. That’s probably what _would_ happen if this was a TV series or something, but this is real life, and I’m afraid that means there’s no way you’re actually my brother.”

Kíli laughed. “Well, _that’s_ a relief!”

 

***

 

Fíli met Frerin the next day in a small coffee shop near his office. It was in one of the oldest buildings of Erebor. Kíli’s father was sipping a cup of tea when Fíli arrived.

“This used to be such a hip little bar,” he told Fíli, looking around and shaking his head. “And now it is just another boring coffee shop.”

“Well, they do offer soy milk,” Fíli remarked. “That’s considered ‘hip’ by some people, I suppose.”

That provoked a laugh, and Frerin smiled while Fíli ordered his coffee. Black, despite the soy milk on the menu, because he preferred it that way.

Before their coffee arrived and Fíli had a chance to unwind a little, Frerin said, “Thorin doesn’t want to talk to me, does he?”

“I … he was very rushed yesterday.”

“You did look a bit uncomfortable last night.” Frerin sighed, finishing his tea. “So I figured that Thorin told you to fuck off.”

“Um …” Fíli wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. “Well, my mother wants to see you, at least.”

“Dis?” Frerin frowned. “Isn’t she in Ered Luin? I would have asked, of course, if I’d thought …”

“She’s flying over tomorrow.”

“So she can rip my head off in person?”

Fíli was very grateful that the waiter arrived to serve his coffee just then; it gave him a moment to ground himself. “She didn’t say anything like that. She just said she wants to see you. Well, and meet Kíli.”

“The last thing I heard from her was that if she ever caught me near Thorin or herself again, she’d rip my head off and use my skull as a fruit bowl.”

Knowing his mother, Fíli had no doubt that she had in fact said that. When he didn’t answer, Frerin continued, “I’m sorry to have dragged you into this. I had no idea Kíli’s boyfriend was related to Thorin and Dis.”

“But you knew about me before you came?” Fíli frowned. Kíli had made it sound like his father didn’t.

“I suspected. Kíli and I don’t talk regularly … but when I called about staying with him, I knew he was hiding something. He’s crap at hiding anything.”

“He is.” Fíli couldn’t help smiling. Kíli’s frankness was adorable - inconvenient sometimes, but adorable. It was so refreshing to be with someone who was open with his feelings.

“He takes after his mother.” A crease appeared between Frerin’s eyebrows, then he made a visible effort to relax. “I’m glad he introduced me to you, though.”

Fíli didn’t voice his suspicion that Kíli wouldn’t have done that had Fíli not been his neighbour. “I was glad to meet Kíli’s father.”

The cynical smile made Frerin look very unlike his son. “You’re polite. You must have been wary. I know he told you … what I said.”

Frerin looked much older now.

“I was wrong. I should have realised everything I was taught was wrong when my best friend came out as gay.” He rubbed his face. “I have no explanation. I don’t know. And then my son told me he was bisexual - and all I could see was that he was not _only_ interested in men, and I just hoped that he could just … _stop_ being into men. But …”

Frerin stopped and sighed.

“And now?” Fíli asked when the silence became awkward.

“And now I ….” Frerin hesitated. He played with his cup. “You could say I started thinking. I missed my son. And I missed Thorin, too. I started to look for more information. And then I watched this documentary on TV -- there was this gay man, just a bit older than Thorin and me… and I just decided that I needed to at least try and see Thorin. And make up with my son. So I sent a message to Kíli telling him that I was going to visit.”

He didn’t add that he was sorry, but Fíli could see that he was. And he wasn’t the one Frerin needed to apologise to, anyway. “You need tell all of this to Kíli,” he said.

“Probably.” Frerin put his teacup down, looking exhausted. “You must see how difficult this is, though. Kíli barely talks to me.”

“I can find something for me to do tonight, so you two can be alone.”

 

***

 

It was nearly midnight when Kíli came to Fíli’s flat; Fíli was already in bed, reading. Instead of changing out of his clothes, Kíli sat down on the edge of the bed.

“So I talked to my father.”

Fíli rolled over to be closer to Kíli. “That’s good?”

“I guess?” Kíli wasn’t looking at him. “He talked to you first, right? He told me that you said he needed to talk to me.”

“That’s right; I did.” For the first time, Fíli wasn’t sure how to read Kíli’s expression. “Was I wrong?”

“No.” Kíli slumped his shoulders a bit. “No. I … I guess it’s good. He said he was sorry. And that he was wrong.”

“But?”

“I don’t know.” Kíli sighed and finally turned his head to give Fíli a small smile. “I always wanted to hear that from him. I just thought I’d be happier once he said it.”

“Oh.” Fíli curled his hands around Kíli’s forearm and pulled him down onto the bed. There was no resistance, Kíli let himself be pulled into Fíli’s arms.

“I should be happy, shouldn’t I?”

“You will be, I’m sure.” Fíli placed a soft kiss on Kíli’s head. “But nobody can expect you to just get over the rejection and the pain that he caused you.”

“Thank you.” Kíli snuggled against Fíli. “It really hurt, you know. It was just him and me after Mam died and I thought he’d always be there for me. He was, I guess, I mean he never cut me off, but …”

Fíli held Kíli as he started sobbing. That wasn’t the reaction he had expected, but he should have. Kíli was strong, obviously -- despite his father’s harsh reaction, he was completely at ease with his sexuality. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t been deeply hurt by his father’s rejection, who must have been the most important person in his life.

Frerin was not too late, though; it had been obvious from the beginning that Kíli still loved him. But right now, Frerin had reopened wounds that Kíli had fought hard to heal. All Fíli could do now was hold Kíli in his arms and gently pat his back.

It took Kíli several minutes to calm down, but finally he lifted his wet face from Fíli’s chest. His smile wobbled a bit. “We should get some sleep. Your mam is arriving tomorrow.”

 

While Kíli undressed, Fíli padded into his living room to fetch some chocolate. That always helped. Kíli was happily destroying an entire bar of Nougat Crisp chocolate while he watched Fíli take off his shirt.

Kíli then had the bright idea to make some dough - he loved punching bread dough, and it would take the edge off his confused feelings. They still had all the ingredients in Fíli’s kitchen from the one time they had made pizza together.

Watching Kíli beat the dough was a bit disconcerting; if Fíli hadn’t known that Kíli was one of the most peaceful people imaginable, he’d have been very scared by the look of fierce intensity on his face, and the sheer power with which he punched the dough and slammed it on the work top.

To lighten the mood, Fíli mentioned that Thorin had expressed interest in going to Tauriel’s brunch. Kíli was immediately distracted, wondering if maybe they could make their own brunch, and what he could prepare. While he was talking, he put the dough in the fridge to let it rise overnight. His brain was already busy creating the menu. Would Dis prefer peanut butter waffles, or regular ones? Or pancakes? Or French toast? And what was her opinion on scrambled tofu? Birchermuesli with coconut milk? Tomato rosemary scones? Or, perhaps, a quiche?

All this talk about food made Fíli hungry, and they ended up making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at half past one before they finally found some sleep, all drama forgotten for the moment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed it, I would love a comment!  
> As usual, a couple of notes about the food, even though there was less of it in this chapter .... (it turns out you can't throw in a complicated father-son relationship without having to take the focus a little bit off eating):
> 
> Regarding the almond parmesan: I usually just mix almonds, nutrional yeast and yellow miso together (inspired by Joanne Stepaniak, you can find a version [here](http://www.veganseatwhat.com/recipe/easy-parmesan-cheese/)) or buy a commercial parmesan substitute. The menu they have in the vegetarian cafeteria was inspired by what I had in the vegetarian cafeteria in Zurich though and they always have a "nut parmesan" which tastes great but I don't know what's in it.  
> Tomato salad with bananas is a thing, believe it or not! I found more recipes in German though, but at it's most basic (aka like the recipe I tried) it is really just tomatoes, bananas (not too ripe/sweet), maybe some onion, some oil, some vinegar and some salt and pepper. It's also good with a yoghurt based sauce too, apparently.  
> "Srivijaya" was a kingdom in modern day Malaysia ... I liked the name and I wanted something a bit obscure as always ;) It was more inspired by the kind of spices used in Thailand though. Just that most of those spices originally come from Sumatra and Java. Anyway, tomato sauce with Galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves is GREAT. If anyone is interested I can try to find my original recipe, usually I just eyeball it these days.
> 
> Also all the vegan burgers mentioned are real recipes. I usually just mash beans and whatever spices I feel like and then add gluten powder and maybe some oats until it sticks together well enough. I basically derived that from this recipe: [Perfect Burger](http://vegandad.blogspot.ch/2007/12/perfect-burger.html) \- Vegan Dad is an AWESOME blog anyway. 
> 
> Also, I love to make bread dough when I am really angry, it is not necessary to punch the dough but it doesn't hurt it and is SO satisfying. Making bread is great anger management.


	7. Dis arrives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dis arrives and Kíli and Fíli worry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you didn't think I abandoned this story! For some reason this chapter didn't want to come together until now.  
> As always, Khafushun spent hours editing it - thank you so much again! He really is the best editor and he had a ton of suggestions for that one .... despite (or maybe because) having worked on this on and off for months, there were some important moments missing for example ;) 
> 
> And as a reminder: Mizuhon is what I called his Modern Middle Earth's version of Japan :)
> 
> I also decided to dedicate this story to straycrab, who is the best motivator :)

The next morning Fíli woke up to an empty bed, but the delicious smell of fresh bread wafting in from the kitchen was an acceptable substitute for Kíli’s absence. There was something to be said for making bread dough while upset, he thought. 

Kíli looked sleepy, though, and admitted to being exhausted, but instead of going back to bed, he went to wake up Frerin while Fíli started the coffee and put the plates and jam on the table, snatching some of the bread already. Frerin was going to join Kíli at university today and sit in on some of the lectures his son was taking. 

Fíli didn’t talk to Thorin about why his mother had suddenly decided to visit Erebor. They never talked about anything, after all, so Fíli didn’t see the point of changing their routine now. So, Thorin just called Fíli during lunchtime on the day of Dis’ arrival and told him that he wouldn’t be able to pick Dis up from the airport as he had planned, and then asked if Fíli could do it. So, Fíli picked up the keys to Thorin’s SUV from Bilbo and drove to the airport.

He was a very inexperienced driver, however, and for that reason he felt overwhelming relief when his journey was over and he had managed to park the car despite its ridiculous proportions. 

Thankfully, Fíli’s bad mood was dispelled as soon as he spotted his mother coming through the arrivals gate. She was short, but the wealth of dark hair on her head and her purposeful gait made her stand out in any crowd. Her strong, stern face transformed into an easy smile when she spotted her son, and she hurried up to him to engulf him in a tight hug.

To his surprise, he found himself laughing, and all his apprehension fled for a moment. He hadn’t seen her in far too long. Sure, he didn’t appreciate having his hair ruffled in public, but he had missed her.

Before they had even made it to the car, she whipped out three bars of his favourite chocolate from her handbag. It was dark and just melted on your tongue, with bits of crunchy chocolate cookies for texture, that had made him literally stop in his tracks when he had tasted it for the first time. For some reason it hadn’t made it to the Love Seitan shop yet, and there was no online shop that shipped it to Erebor. (Fíli had checked several times.) He resolved to carry one of the bars there himself to convince the owner to order it for the shop. That left one to start now and one to present Kíli with later. Kíli was the only person he was willing to share chocolate with.

Fíli profusely thanked his mother and stuffed his face with chocolate. For that reason, they didn’t talk much as they walked to the car, and then Fíli had to concentrate on not crashing the big car on the ridiculously narrow ramp leading to the exit.

Once they were on the motorway, his mother said: “I’m looking forward to meeting Kíli.”

Fíli smiled a bit, glad she hadn’t brought up the more awkward meeting right away: the one with Kíli’s father. 

“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow; Thorin wants your attention tonight.” 

She chuckled. “I know. And of course I want to see that old grumpy bear too. But then I want to meet Kíli.”

“We were thinking that the best idea would be for you to have lunch with us tomorrow. The university has a nice park for picnics, apparently.”

“A picnic?”

“That was Kíli’s idea.” And then, because his mother still seemed sceptical, he added: “The weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow, so Kíli thought we ought to take advantage of it.”

“I like him already.”

“That’s what you say every time I call -- I’m starting to get suspicious.”

She laughed. “Well, I’m glad that you’ve found somebody who sounds so nice. I suppose you might be biased, but even if he is only half as sweet as you describe him, I’m happy for you.”

“Still, you didn’t come for him,” Fíli pointed out. They had left the motorway by now, which meant he felt a bit more confident about broaching the topic now and not crashing the car.

“I didn’t want to impose!” Her tone was stern, as if she was the one disappointed, not Fíli. “Of course I wanted to meet him, but I thought it might scare him away if your mother flew in only a few months after you met. I certainly didn’t want to meet my boyfriend’s parents so soon! So, I expected you to invite me once you were ready for me to meet him. Apparently Kíli thought it was time for you to meet Frerin.”

“Frerin didn’t know about me when he invited himself over.” That was only partially true, of course; Frerin had suspected there was somebody in his son’s life, after all. Still, Fíli wasn’t lying when he added: “Kíli only told Frerin about me after he had arrived.”

“I see.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I barged in now, darling. I wasn’t considering how uncomfortable it must be for you.”

“Don’t worry.” Fíli was worrying plenty for both of them, and they had nearly made it to Thorin’s place. Thorin was already standing in the driveway when Fíli pulled in. 

Thorin rushed to the car to open Dis’ door. “Dis!” It was a long time since Fíli had seen Thorin smiling like this. He folded his massive arms around his sister once she had climbed out of the car and held her as tightly as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. She swatted his arms, laughing.

“I’m happy to see you too, you oaf.”

Fíli stood behind his mother with her suitcase in his hand. It felt awkward to be in his uncle’s private space. Thorin looked at him, and his smile also became more tentative.

“Well come on in, both of you.”

So Fíli carried the suitcase in; the last time he had been in this house was two years ago, but it looked completely unchanged. It wasn’t the place Thorin and Dis had grown up -- the big townhouse had been sold to the city before Fili was born -- but the furniture and the decorations had come from there. There were no personal touches by Thorin, apart from, perhaps, the picture of Dis with little Fili that hung next to the other family pictures, which had been taken when his grandparents had still been alive.

The grandeur made Fíli a bit uncomfortable. Dis, on the other hand, seemed to be completely at ease, and chatted with Thorin through the open door to the kitchen, where Thorin was preparing coffee for them. Fíli idly studied the titles of the leather bound volumes on the shelves; his grandparents (and great-grandparents) had assembled quite an impressive collection of works, mostly on politics. He doubted that Thorin had ever read the large collection of acts of parliament from 70 years ago.

When Thorin came out and began to talk to Dis about her flight, her daily life, about the challenges he faced with the house, about something or other they had done as children, he began to listen politely. But once his coffee was finished, he announced that he had to go home; Kíli was expecting him.

“Ah, yes, your young man.” Thorin smiled, but there was a vague air of puzzlement around his eyes, as if he wondered if that was the right thing to say to his nephew. Followed by a small frown, when he presumably remembered who the father of that young man was.

“Yes…” Fíli realised he was actually dragging his foot back and forth and stopped. “Also, I’ve got work tomorrow.”

“Sure.” Thorin smiled. “I mean, you could have taken the day off…”

“I think one of us taking the day off is quite enough.” Fíli shrugged. “You can spend time with Mum tomorrow, I’ll just steal her for lunch.”

“And no, you can’t come, Thorin,” Dis said, poking her stern brother. “I’m going to meet Fíli’s boyfriend, and we don’t want to frighten him away.”

“I just wish you’d told me earlier,” Thorin complained. “I’ll have to disturb Bilbo now to see if he can meet me for lunch. And…”

Fíli stood up as discreetly as possible, and Thorin actually shut up and followed him to the door, along with Dis, who hugged him tightly. Thorin stood next to her, tall and awkward, and not at all like the grumpy boss Fíli had become used to.

On his way to the bus stop, he began to feel freer, but also confused. Seeing his mother had made him happy, and he had actually liked his uncle. Mostly. Why did this all have to be this awkward?

He knew why, though. Thorin had always wanted him as successor, and ever since Fíli was a teenager, Thorin had made his displeasure known about anything Fíli did, which did not immediately lead to that goal. He always felt judged by Thorin, always felt like he had to measure up, and he still didn’t even know if he wanted to become the president of Durin, Inc. Everybody had always expected him to want to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, even his mother. He had rebelled when he chose his field of study, design which had always interested him, but of course he had let himself be dragged into Durin, Inc. anyway.

He really was an over-privileged, whiny brat, he chided himself. While there had been a lot of expectations, nobody had forced him to do anything. True, Thorin hadn’t actually offered the position so much as informed him about it. But, on the other hand, the only time he told Thorin that he might not even want to take over Durin, Inc. had been almost ten years ago, when he decided to study computer science and art. After that, he had taken a couple of business management classes and he had taken the opportunity to do internships with Durin, Inc. and work there in his holidays to earn some money without the hassle of looking for a job.

He had applied to a couple of other jobs after university, but hadn’t even made it to the interview stage, so he began working first in Ered Luin and then in Erebor. And he enjoyed his job.

He resolved to actually come to a final decision once Dis and Frerin were back home and life went back to normal. Thorin deserved that much. Either he committed to a future with Durin, Inc., continuing his uncle’s impressive legacy, or he needed to let Thorin know that it wouldn’t happen and maybe they had to find somebody else.

 

*

 

Once Fíli was back home, he had no time for introspection anymore. He was roped into helping Kíli marinate the courgettes and chop some spring onions and cooked asparagus, all for their picnic lunch with Dis the next day. He could tell that Kíli was a bit nervous, so he didn’t complain, even though the food was clearly far too much for 3 people.

Frerin was allowed in the kitchen too this time; he mainly seemed to be busy frowning at the food processor, making hummus while Kíli made the sauces. Frerin’s frown looked so much like Kíli’s that Fíli had to chuckle, though he refused to say what was so funny.

They finished off by preparing some pitchers of rhubarb lemonade and iced tea. Kíli had teased the other men by suggesting a recipe for carrot lemonade instead, which Frerin firmly claimed Dis wouldn’t even try, and Fíli had to agree. His mother was more adventurous than Frerin, but Fíli knew she’d consider rhubarb lemonade itself a funny new idea, let alone a lemonade with carrots.

They sampled some of the food for a rushed dinner that night. Frerin promised to clean the kitchen while they were away the next day.

In the morning, Fíli had to get up early to prepare the sandwiches and assemble the salads with Kíli. In his own kitchen, since Kíli’s looked like a battlefield.

Before they got up, Fíli had slung his arms around Kíli’s warm body and asked why they couldn’t just have morning sex, or at least morning cuddles, and take his mother to a nice restaurant, or buy ready-made stuff. Kíli, predictably, was not agreeable to that idea at all, and shoved Fíli away before getting up, grumbling something about “first impressions.” So Fíli had gotten out of bed too, though he managed to steal a few kisses until Kíli was smiling again. Then he got to work with helping in the kitchen.

When Kíli had left for university, he left Fíli to deal with the huge picnic basket. Granted, it would have been a bit risky to strap it to Kíli’s bike carrier, but the thing also didn’t win Fíli any new friends in the morning’s rush hour on the bus. The things he did to humour his boyfriend.

 

*

 

When Fili and the basket of hell arrived at the university at noon, both Dis and Kíli were already waiting for him; they had recognized each other from the pictures Fíli had shown both of them. To his relief, they seemed to be having a pleasant conversation. Knowing them both as well as he did, he could tell that they both were nervous and intent on making a good impression. So far they seemed to have been successful, from what Fíli could tell.

“I just told your mother about the different picnic spots in the park,” Kíli said after Fíli had hugged them both. “She wants to go to the artificial pond with all the ducks.”

“A few cheeky ducks won’t scare me away,” Dis declared. “And I love ponds, they feel so refreshing.”

So they all walked the short distance, keeping up the small talk; they were lucky to find a nice spot, as the park was crowded with students, and Kíli and Fíli began to unpack the basket.

Dis was duly impressed by the spread in front of her. There was a green asparagus salad, a baby spinach salad with strawberries, sandwiches with a tomato spread and rocket, cucumber-hummus sandwiches, sandwiches with marinated courgette, and a simple fruit salad with store bought biscuits (even Kíli didn’t have enough time to make everything himself, much to his chagrin). Fíli was particularly partial to the cucumber hummus sandwiches; the weather was getting quite hot and the combination of cucumber and chickpeas was pleasantly cooling.

His mother devoured the asparagus salad almost on her own; she had always had a weakness for asparagus, and the combination of green asparagus with blanched spring onions and a very light mayonnaise sauce (homemade, of course) seemed to be just to her taste. 

“This,” she declared when she took her third helping, emptying the bowl, “is absolutely delicious, Kíli. And Fíli really helped you prepare this?”

“Yes.” Kíli beamed. “He’s becoming very handy with a knife.”

“Is he?” Dis ruffled Fíli’s hair, and he almost fell backwards into the grass trying to get away from her.

Despite their easy chatting and the immediate alliance Dis and Kíli had made to tease Fíli, there was still an undercurrent of tension. Dis hadn’t just come to meet the charming young man her son had found, after all.

“So,” she finally announced, once she had finished her fruit salad. “I thought it might be best if I met Frerin on my own, at first at least, without trying to convince Thorin to come along, too. Obviously we don’t have much time, and--”

“I can cook dinner tomorrow night,” Kíli interrupted her. “I’ve been thinking about this, and I think that would work best. It’s a neutral place, and not public, and Fíli and I can go to his flat to leave you two to discuss whatever you need to discuss.”

“Wonderful.” Dis favoured him with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Fíli was unused to dealing with his formidable mother in need of some adult support. They just didn’t deal with feelings in his family, so he patted her shoulder and hoped his own smile was encouraging.

“You can sample some more of the results of my amazing knife skills,” he promised, and that made her smile for real.

“I’m looking forward to that. To think you never wanted to learn how to cook when you were at home…”

“You never let me learn!” He protested immediately. “You always promised to show me, but then you always just did everything yourself!”

“Well…” She smiled and patted his head. Again. “I guess I did. But you never showed much interest.”

“I prefer to eat.” Fíli patted his belly. He had gained a little weight since meeting Kíli. All that good food had to go somewhere. Kíli beamed at him and, for the first time since meeting Dis nearly an hour earlier, he put his arm around Fíli.

“I’ve never had anyone appreciate my cooking so much! Of course, he can still be a bit fussy…”

“…I just don’t eat weird stuff!”

“…but he does let me experiment with new recipes whenever I like. Which I do all the time.”

Dis had already heard about the sugar in salad dressing incident, but Kíli then proceeded to enlighten her about all the other things he had tried, and which Fíli had, sometimes reluctantly, sampled, and after that, her mood visibly improved. Fíli still pointed out that Kíli had deceived him, when they had first met and Kíli claimed that he liked “simple food” -- by which he had only meant that he didn’t cook with meat or dairy replacements very often. 

Needless to say, Fíli’s definition of “simple” did not include most of Kíli’s creative ideas.

Fíli’s lunch break ended soon after that, and Fíli carried the heavy picnic basket back to his office and offered the leftover sandwiches, fruit salad, and biscuits to his colleagues during the coffee break. So in the end, all he had to carry home were the leftover salads.

 

*

 

Fíli arrived home earlier than Kíli, who still had to take care of some evening bike courier deliveries. After he had put his briefcase and the basket down in his own flat, put the salads in the fridge, and fortified himself with some tea, he rang the door to Kíli’s flat. He would not be a coward and avoid Frerin until Kíli came back. Fíli knew the older man was likely anxious to hear about their encounter with Dis.

Frerin was on board with the idea of dinner the next evening. He knew he didn’t have much time left in Erebor; it was already Thursday, and he was set to leave on Tuesday. He seemed happy, if a bit apprehensive, to at least be able to talk to Dis.

Even though Fíli warned him that Kíli was going to insist on preparing something extra special, Frerin still smiled and assured Fíli that he’d pay for any expensive ingredients. Of course, that was not what Fíli was concerned about. What concerned him was getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time, considering that it was a regular Friday, and he couldn’t really just take the afternoon off to help.

Both his mother and his boyfriend told him, separately, that he was worrying too much.

 

***

 

On Friday night, Fíli arrived only 10 minutes before his mother, and was frantically chopping cucumbers and radishes for a salad, while Kíli put the finishing touches to his ginger-lime risotto. The sudden ringing of the doorbell nearly had Fíli add some very non-vegan human blood to the salad. Kíli was the one who was at the door first, quickly followed by Frerin.

By the time Fíli made it to the hallway, Dis was still standing in front of the flat and was doing her best to smile at Frerin, whose back, from Fíli’s perspective, looked too straight to be comfortable. However, it didn’t look like any heads were going to be ripped off any time soon, which was a relief.

“Mum!” he called, and just as he hoped, that did the trick. Dis finally moved inside to give her son a hug. Frerin politely stepped out of the way. She then followed Fíli into the kitchen to help him put together the salad, even though he tried to resist her help. Frerin set the table, and Kíli was busy fretting and running back and forth between the living room and kitchen.

But he needn’t have worried. He had once more outdone himself. Dis and Frerin were united in praising the risotto, which burst with the freshness of the lime, ginger, and spring onions, while the cucumbers and radishes added a welcome crunch as a side dish. Kíli had also defrosted some chickpea cutlets they had prepared a while back, and both parents declared them much better than they’d expected. That was enough conversation to make dinner go smoothly, even though they didn’t talk much.

But the dessert was a true triumph. Kíli served anmitsu, a dessert from Mizuhon. There was fresh fruit, agar jelly, anko (a sweet bean paste), and sweet mochi mixed into a delicious salad, along with the matcha ice cream Fíli had brought from Love Seitan. Frerin and Dis soon started talking about their trip to Mizuhon thirty years prior: the charming café in the old capital of Mizuhon where they had first tried anmitsu was the main focus of conversation, along with some of their other misadventures. 

Fíli hadn’t even known his mother had ever been to Mizuhon; presumably, she had never told him because she had cut Frerin out of her memories. Now, however, she was full of stories of convincing Frerin to try anko -- because Frerin, even when he had been younger, had been very opposed to the idea of beans as a dessert.

 

*

 

“Did you know about their trip to Mizuhon?” Fíli whispered later, once they had a moment alone together in the kitchen to do the dishes.

“My father told me, yes,” Kíli said, a proud grin on his face. “And that got me thinking.”

“Of…?”

“Of how I could get my father and your mum to reminisce about the good old days, before their falling out! Without being too obvious about it, of course.”

“Of course.” Fíli smirked. “And so, naturally, that got you thinking about food.”

Kíli flicked some water at Fíli. “I don’t appreciate that comment! Even if you’re right.” He stuck out his tongue and laughed.

Fíli soon joined in, leaning in to bump Kíli’s shoulder with his own. “What made you decide on the anmitsu, though?” he asked after a moment.

Kíli grinned. “Actually, at first I was planning to make some zosui, or noodle soup, or maybe even sushi as the main dish. But knowing my father, it might have ended with him mourning the absence of fish, and I didn’t want to encourage negativity tonight. So I thought something unusual, something they certainly never had before as a main dish, was better.”

“So, you went with a dessert to inspire some nostalgia between them?”

“That’s right.” Kíli puffed out his chest proudly. “I thought an innocent Mizuhon dessert might do the trick to spark some memories between those two."

“You’re a genius.” Fíli put the plate he was drying down, and caught Kíli’s hips to draw him closer and turn him around for a kiss. Kíli only put up a token resistance, before he put the pot in his hands back into the sink. With his soapy hands, he grabbed Fíli’s hips in turn, soaking Fíli’s shirt. Not that he minded, just so long as Kíli was kissing him. Kíli was fully committed to everything he did, serving the best food he could come up with to woo Fíli’s mother, or kissing her son so fiercely that he was able to practically forget that his mother was in the next room.

“We wanted to go to your flat,” Kíli whispered in Fíli’s mouth.

“Right.” Fíli slowly let go of his boyfriend.

Kili smiled brightly and dragged Fíli out of the kitchen and to the living room, where Frerin was just pouring another glass of wine for Dis. Both looked up at their sons, with smiles and questions if they could help in the kitchen.

Kíli shook his head, whipping Fili with a few stray curls.

“We’re finished!” he announced. “And we’re going to turn in now, if that’s alright with you. It’s been an exhausting few days.”

“It has indeed.” Frerin smiled. “Good night, then. I can see Dís out later.”

 

*

 

They resumed their kiss once they closed the door to Fíli’s flat behind them, and undressed each other down to their underpants, but once they were on the bed, they both slowed down until their make-out session petered out and they just looked at each other. 

“It feels distinctly odd to leave my mother in your flat next door,” Fíli remarked, his hand only loosely resting on Kíli’s hip now. 

“I know.” Kíli sighed. “I mean, we agreed that we’d give them private space to talk, but I’m a bit worried.”

“It’s not like we can help them sort out their problems, though. My mother didn’t tell me any details of what happened, just that Frerin’s reaction to Thorin’s coming out was really bad.” Fíli pulled at his hair, feeling more nervous than he cared to admit. “Still, it doesn’t look like my mum is going to rip his head off, as she apparently threatened to all those years ago. So, that’s good.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Kíli sighed and his thumbs caressed Fíli’s biceps. “I just… I wanted your mother to like me. And then it turned out she’s got some kind of stupid history with my father.”

“Well, at least you’ve gotten to meet my mother now.” Fíli smoothened Kíli’s hair and chuckled a bit when Kíli returned the favour. “By the way, she said she’d been dying to meet you, but she was waiting for me to ask her to come visit. Apparently she didn’t want to impose.”

“That’s nice of her.”

“Surprisingly so!” Fíli moved to put his head on Kíli’s chest. “You’ve met her now. She’s always so determined and forceful, I didn’t really expect her to wait around for an invitation to come and meet my boyfriend.”

Kíli pulled the blanket on top of them.

“Well, our parents are obviously good for surprises.”

“Hmm.”

Fíli didn’t feel inclined to discuss either Dis or Frerin any further. They had spent far too much time talking and thinking about them, anyway. So instead he gently rubbed Kíli’s neck, a gesture that always made Kíli purr like a happy kitten.

 

*

 

The next morning, Fíli got a message from his mother inviting him and Kíli to a barbecue at Thorin’s place later that evening. That was unexpected. Even more unexpected was the second message: that Frerin was coming, too. It was Saturday, which meant they were both free, but once Kíli was informed of the plan, he began to fret. He immediately rejected Dis’ offer to buy something special (i.e., vegan friendly) just for them, and instead insisted that they would bring their own food, along with a salad to share with everyone.

Once Kíli had collected Frerin from Kíli’s flat to help with the preparations, it was all too obvious that both Kíli and Frerin were trying to distract themselves from panicking over meeting Thorin.

Fíli was nervous himself, so he was all too willing to be pulled into the discussion of the relative merits of vegetable-tofu kebabs versus homemade burgers versus simple portobello mushrooms, and he passionately defended pasta salad with rocket and sun-dried tomatoes against a new potato salad with spring onions.

They were still arguing on their way to the shop, but that was better than contemplating the prospect of facing Thorin, which they all feared for different reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Food!!!  
> When I was a teenager, I used to make bread when I'm angry. I really should start with that tradition again, attacking dough is very satisfying.  
> The chocolate Dis brought is iChoc Choco cookie, a vegan brand (which has made it to Switzerland actually, hurray. Fíli is me here in his appreciation). When I started out as a vegan 17 years ago there was not a lot of good vegan chocolate (like seriously, they had two good ones in the health food shop and they were sold out more often than not) but now I have such a hard time not to practically live off chocolate.
> 
> The asparagus salad is basically my family's recipe though I am usually too lazy to make the mayonnaise myself. It's cooked green asparagus, spring onions blanched in the cooking liquid from the asparagus, a bit of rocket or baby spinach, and a sauce with mayonnaise and the cooking liquid plus salt pepper etc.
> 
> [Cucumber Hummus](http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2010/08/cucumber-hummus.html) is a recipe from the fat-free vegan blog and something I really like in summer.
> 
> The carrot lemonade idea is from a book called "Amazing Lemonade recipes to thirs for" as is the Rhubarb lemonade. I had Rhubard lemonade before and it was amazing, but I won't ever try carrot lemonade.  
> Iced Tea is really popular in Switzerland and I used to be quite addicted to it. For the Homemade one, I usually use one part rose hip tea, one part lime tree blossom tea, one part peppermint tea and two parts black tea, plus sugar and lemon but please imagine Kíli preparing your favourite blend ;)
> 
> The ginger-lime risotto idea is from a German cookbook (Vegetarian Basics from GU ... yes it's in German despite the title). Basically, add one lime (juice and zest) and one 2cm piece of fresh ginger (grated or very finely chopped) for 300 gram risotto rice ... add the lime zest and ginger when you fry the onions at the beginning (ideally spring onions), and the lime juice with the broth. It's great!
> 
> I basically explained Anmitsu in the chapter ;) You can find tons of recipes online. I've never been to Japan but apparently there are lots of lovely cafés in Kyoto that serve Anmitsu that are very popular with tourists. (I definitely plan to make it there in the next couple of years!)
> 
> So anyway, I hope you enjoyed and comments always make my day!


End file.
